


Our Breath

by Raven_Ehtar



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Butterflies, Characters Playing Viva Piñata, Coffee, Crack Treated Seriously, Cute Venom Symbiote (Marvel), Developing Relationship, Diet Changes, Domestic Fluff, Early Mornings, Eddie Brock is a Pushover, Feels, Flowers, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Food, Gardens & Gardening, Guilt, Humor, Kisses, Knitting, M/M, Morning Routines, Oblivious Eddie Brock, Other, Past Gore, Past Violence, Roller Coasters, Romantic Fluff, Sensuality, Sharing a Bed, Showers, Silly, Singing, Sweet, Touch Therapy, Wordcount: 30.000-50.000, Yoga, mentions of gore, self-care, symbrock
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-10
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2020-04-23 21:26:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 35,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19159297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raven_Ehtar/pseuds/Raven_Ehtar
Summary: Learning how to deal with an alien who liked to eat people living in his head actuallywasn'tas much of an adjustment as most people would think. Probably less than it ought to be, really.Learning how to really take care of the alien - and himself as a consequence - was a bit of a bigger adjustment. Plus... who knew that living with an alien would be quite this domestic?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> _*busts through the door*_ I'M NEW TO THIS FANDOM AND I INTEND TO TURN YOUR BADASS GOO BOYS INTO _SOFT_ BOYS.
> 
> ...though from what I understand, that's not too far out of the ordinary, so you know. Here I am.
> 
> I'd been intending to watch Venom for some time - it kept popping up on my various dashes, it was gonna happen - but then [Wolfloner](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wolfloner) had me read her fic, [Falling for the First Time](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17386505/chapters/40919639), and I was basically done for. (For anyone curious, it's Symbrock and Spideypool, and excellently written! ♥) After reading that, I've watched the movie approximately 47,000 times, picked up some comics, and... yeah.
> 
>  _This_ fic was the result of myself and [SkyTurtle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkyTurtle) bouncing ridiculous and silly headcanons back and forth at one another, and doing some actual research for how some of the science and biology might work in the world. I basically took all those headcanons and shoved them together to make a story and here we are. ^//^
> 
> Special thanks to both Wolfloner and SkyTurtle, who as well as the above, both acted as cheer readers and betas for me. Thank you both, lovelies~! ♥

It had started out simply enough. Just something to help Eddie to deal with the stress of having an adrenaline junkie alien riding around inside him at all times, and maybe to stem a little of the complaining he got about what terrible shape he was in.

He didn’t think he was in _that_ bad a shape, really. He worked out a bit, had an in-home weight set, did plenty of walking around the city when he wasn’t riding his bike – and it wasn’t like his bike wasn’t a sort of workout as well. It took muscle to balance properly on the thing, and that counted for something.

But once he had V riding with him, he’d become much more aware of some of his body’s shortcomings. It was a little hard _not_ to notice, given what They became whenever they became _They_. No human could really compare to the powerhouse They were when they were fully bonded. The pure and easy power They had at Their disposal was, quite frankly, terrifying. And when They went back to being ‘me’ and ‘you,’ Eddie felt the difference keenly. At first it had encouraged him to work out even more, pumping up his diet with more protein, hitting the weights more regularly, doing all of those workout things which he’d thought he’d been done obsessing over when he’d left high school.

It was a bit of a lost cause, of course. No matter what he did to strengthen himself, Venom – the combination of what he was with what V was – would always be more. Venom was the sum of their parts, and Eddie would never be able to make himself more than that.

Which… was fine. More than fine. Together they were more than either of them could possibly be on their own. It didn’t matter that when he was ‘alone’ Eddie wasn’t as strong or powerful as when they were They… because he was never really alone. Not anymore.

But there were still some things he could do to help improve his body, and take better care of himself _because_ of the roommate he was sharing a body with.

Eddie took a deep breath, imagining he was breathing straight into his muscles. As he exhaled, he pushed just a little more, stretching down and reaching for the ground. The backs of his legs burned, protesting the stretch. His lower back woke up with an ache as well. Eddie did what the instructor had told him to do, and didn’t ignore the pain, didn’t push past it, but took it right to the edge of where it felt like ‘pleasant pain’ and stopped, holding it there and breathing.

He’d had a few questions when the instructor had first uttered the words ‘pleasant pain,’ but it made sense when he actually felt it for himself.

**EDDIE, YOU CAN’T ‘BREATHE INTO YOUR MUSCLES.’ THAT IS STUPID.**

And of course there was always the little issue of having a running commentary whenever he decided to work on his flexibility.

_I know I can’t, buddy. It’s more of a… a visualization, I guess. Reminds me to breathe, reminds me to go slow._

**WE COULD REMIND YOU,** the voice pointed out, sounding a little put out. **WE ARE VERY GOOD AT REMINDING YOU OF THINGS WHICH YOU FORGET.**

Eddie smirked, and stretched down a little further. His fingertips were still about half an inch from the floorboards, which was a lot better than where he’d started, but still frustrating.

_I know you are, buddy. Who needs shopping lists when they’ve got a voice in their head screaming for their favorite foods?_

Inside, Eddie felt V move around a little, swirling about his chest cavity like they were shuffling their feet. **IF WE HAD NOT REMINDED YOU, THEN WE WOULD NOT HAVE GOTTEN THE SPECIAL DARK CHOCOLATE.**

_I know, V._

**IT WAS ON SALE, EDDIE.**

_I **know** , V. I’m not saying that I want you to stop, I’m just saying that it’s not like I’m going to forget anything important these days. Nothing **you** think is important, anyway._

He felt V shift around again, felt an echo of the little uncertain twinge which the symbiote felt at Eddie’s thought, until they caught on to the emotion underlying it: Humor, gentle teasing. Once that was clear between them, V settled, and let Eddie continue with his stretches in peace for a while.

The next time they spoke up, Eddie was doing side to side stretches, doing his best to keep in mind all of the little details of the pose to get the maximum amount of stretch as possible.

**EDDIE, WE DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY YOU ARE DOING THIS.**

_Yes, you do,_ Eddie thought, even the words inside his head sounding a little strained. The side to side stuff was always the worst on his back for some reason. _You know exactly why, because you’re in my head and you heard every last bit of reasoning I went through before deciding to do this. I even explained it to you when you asked the first time._

V grumbled. **YES. BUT IT IS STILL UNNECESSARY. YOUR BODY IS PERFECT FOR US. ANY DAMAGE YOU TAKE FROM OUR SHARING, WE CAN FIX.**

_Yeah, well maybe I don’t want you to have to ‘fix’ every little strain. Maybe I’m doing this as a preventative. Maybe I actually **like** doing it._

**YOU DON’T.**

Which was true enough, he supposed. He didn’t really like spending so much time twisting into weird shapes and _breathing_. It seemed a little silly every time he did it, even though he knew it was doing him good. It was effective, giving him the results he wanted… But he was still having a little trouble with the concept that he was willingly practicing yoga in his living room. Even though it had been entirely his idea – something which was becoming more and more of a rarity, really, being certain that any particular thought was 100% _his._ He was still having trouble believing that he was actually doing it.

It was probably one of the reasons V kept poking him about it as much as they were. They knew that Eddie was struggling with it internally, didn’t see any outside reason why it would be enforced on him, and so didn’t see it as a valid use of his time. If Eddie didn’t _want_ to do it, then he shouldn’t, simple as that.

It was both refreshing and incredibly frustrating to have that kind of thinking in his own head. Nice because it offered a perspective he ignored a lot of the time, and frustrating because he felt like he was constantly arguing with a petulant child.

_No, I don’t. But I’m going to do it anyway._

For not having a larynx while inside Eddie’s body, V gave a very good impression of a growl. **FINE. BUT LUNCH AFTER THIS?**

_Dude, we just had breakfast._

**YOU ARE WORKING TODAY** , the symbiote pointed out. **YOU FORGET TO EAT WHEN YOU’RE WORKING. WE WILL EAT AGAIN BEFORE STARTING WORK.**

Eddie smiled as he straightened back up. _Fine. A really light lunch before we leave. And I’ll bring some snack bars. You can harass me into eating those while we’re out, okay?_

**BRING THE ONES WITH THE CHOCOLATE CHIPS.**

_Of course._

He felt as V purred contentedly, curling up in the pit of his stomach like a cat in its basket. They might be demanding, and they might be an amorphous creature from a distant planet – he assumed V came from a planet at some point – but V was surprisingly easy to please. Most of the time, anyway. Most of the time V’s greatest demands revolved entirely around food and attention, and the hardest part was just finding _enough_ of either one to satisfy them. Not terribly complex needs, just _a lot_ of them.

Eddie went through the rest of his routine without much in the way of further commentary. Occasionally V would point out a little error in his pose – which told Eddie that V was actually paying a lot more attention than they liked to let on when it came to his yoga practice – and once reminded him to breathe properly.

When he’d finished with his sets, Eddie straightened. He certainly _felt_ more limber after spending an hour pretending to be a pretzel. And he knew there was some actual objective progress, as well, so he counted it all as a win.

Inside his abdomen, V shifted around a little, a wave of satisfaction coming off of them as well.

Eddie might not like doing the yoga itself very much, and might still be fighting internally over it – still getting over the connotations he had built up around yoga in general – but the immediate results were the same as with any other kind of exercise. Endorphins and a feeling of satisfaction for having spent the time and improved himself, if only a little bit. If nothing else, both he and V could enjoy that part of his new routine.

With any luck, doing yoga and increasing his flexibility would have the effect he _hoped_ it would have, as well. He already did plenty of strength training, and when he and V became They, Their strength was monstrous, but the _soreness_ that came after being Venom was something which Eddie felt could be improved on.

A lot of it came from pushing his body well beyond anything he would have done himself. Not just in pure strength, but in acrobatics as well. It just seemed to Eddie that having a bit more flexibility in general would help prevent some of the aftereffects. And anything which the increased flexibility didn’t preemptively take care of, then the workouts themselves would probably help in recovering. Not that V ever left _too_ much for him to recover from on his own. It seemed like Eddie hardly ever felt any aches and pains anymore. All those little things which had been slowly creeping up on him for years, reminding him that he was getting older and fighting his own body’s breakdown had disappeared once V had become a permanent resident.

His life had definitely gotten weird since meeting V. Weird and frankly terrifying in a lot of ways… and more than a little confusing, for multiple reasons. But in general, it had also improved. In a lot of ways, when he thought about it.

But he was also very, very aware that it wasn’t just himself sharing his body anymore. His body had become a duplex, and it was only good sense to take care of it for the both of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We've got 16 parts to this, total, all of them reasonably short - though I'll admit, I didn't plan on much consistency of length from chapter to chapter. I basically wrote this as a series of scenes/vignettes which all got stuck together - which was a very relaxing way to write, but not great for figuring out formatting later. ^^;;
> 
> So because some parts are going to be a shorter than this one - and some longer, too! - I'm going to try for posting up a new chapter every other day. It seems a little mean to make anyone wait a week for a chapter which is potentially only 1,500 long, lol. So see you guys day after tomorrow! ♥
> 
> \---
> 
> You can find me on  
> Tumblr: [@ehtarwrites](http://ehtarwrites.tumblr.com/)  
> Twitter: [@ehtarwrites](https://twitter.com/ehtarwrites)  
> Discord: @ehtarwrites#4962 
> 
> If anyone wants to come say hi or chat about nerdy things, hmu! ♥


	2. Chapter 2

Eating people was a bit of a point of contention for a while.

Of all the things to butt heads with a ‘roommate’ over, dietary differences was high on the list of most common ones. Eddie doubted that anyone else on the planet had to deal with one whose needs were quite as… extreme as V’s, though.

Eddie had done his best. He really, really had. Conceptually he was pretty sure he’d gotten used to the idea of eating people. They’d done it a few times already, and V seemed perfectly willing to restrict his eating habits to only Bad People, which assuaged Eddie’s conscience quite a bit.

But it still bothered him, which was probably a good sign, quite frankly. If he was still bothered by the idea of cannibalism, then he was at least still a _little_ balanced. Though even to him, the fact that he was squeamish about biting off people’s heads while they were still screaming was… a bit of a low bar.

He wasn’t _so_ squeamish that he was going to cut V off from their food supply. V needed what they needed, and unless Eddie was willing to either starve them or give up his own organs to the cause of keeping the symbiote alive, the only option was to go _crunch_ on some bad guys.

He never thought that he’d be so glad that there were plenty of nasty people to pick from in the city, but it made hunting a lot easier.

But it still… bothered him. And because it bothered him, it upset V as well. They knew when Eddie was upset, and knew what it was about, and either because they cared for Eddie’s opinion directly or just because they found that particular chemical in his bloodstream unpalatable, V got upset over their own eating habits as well. Eddie did his best to squash that reaction as much as he could, to separate himself from the concept of eating people, and not pay attention whenever They were eating as Venom… but that was the thing, wasn’t it? When they were They, trying to not be present was nearly impossible. It was uncomfortable, as well. Like trying to take off Their skin and leave it behind while They were eating.

When they’d gone to Dan, V had been nervous about it. They trusted Dan – that little brush with Anne had done a lot for improving V’s opinion on the doctor, and Eddie had already liked the guy… frustratingly. But it had still been a test of trust, both in Dan and in Eddie, to go to him and allow a few tests to be run.

V had some rather bad memories of being tested by humans, after all. Eddie couldn’t really blame them for being nervous about allowing it to happen again.

But Dan had been amazing about it. It was another one of his super powers as a doctor: amazing bedside manner. It even worked on xenomorphic extraterrestrials.

And Dan had been absolutely fascinated by what he’d found. He admitted up front that he didn’t understand a good half of it and what it would actually mean in practical matters, but he was still fascinated. He went over all of the information which they had gathered, pointing out all of the ways in which V’s systems differed from theirs’, getting more animated than Eddie had ever seen him – including that time when V had choked him.

For himself, Eddie was more or less completely lost as Dan rattled through all of the information he’d gathered.

“A-alright, right,” Eddie said, squeezing in the words as best he could around Dan’s enthusiasm. “But what does this all _mean_ , Dan? I mean, can you tell what it is in… in heads which V needs? Is there anywhere else where we can find it?”

Dan, still looking a little overexcited, nodded. “I think so, though it’s not exactly easy to tell, because the symbiote isn’t an organic lifeform. Which, as you might guess, renders a lot of our tests useless.” He looked over at Eddie’s right shoulder, where V was manifesting himself as something very close to a toothy snake. “He’s a bit difficult to pin down, and I suspect he prefers it that way.”

V grinned at Dan, showing far too many teeth for something – currently – so small. Dan only smiled back at them. Eddie would never fail to be impressed with just how well Dan had adjusted to the idea of an alien living inside of Eddie, and how well he’d actually taken to V themself. It would have been perfectly reasonable to assume that anyone coming face to amorphous face with V would be immediately terrified and put off by them. Especially if said amorphous alien had at one point tried to throttle them. That kind of thing wasn’t usually good for forging friendships, was all.

But Dan seemed absolutely hell bent on subverting all of Eddie’s expectations.

“But I’m pretty sure that I’ve been able to pin down exactly which chemicals it is that he’s metabolizing. It looks like there are two main ones you need to worry about: adrenaline and phenethylamine.”

Eddie frowned. Only two? He would have thought there would be a whole long list of nutrients and hormones which V would need in order to survive. Something extreme in order to justify the _very_ extreme way they had been satisfying V’s needs up until this point. But…

“Okay, I know what one of those is,” Eddie said. “And I guess that explains a few things, if V is big on adrenaline.” Such as V’s love of going as fast as possible on Eddie’s bike, or for performing stunts without warning, making Eddie’s heart race in general. He’d always got the impression that V had liked doing those things just because they _liked_ to do those things – and because Eddie rather enjoyed the rush, as well. But had it all been because they’d been feeding on the chemical release…?

**IT IS BOTH, EDDIE,** V’s voice broke in on his thoughts, a reassuring purr. **WE ENJOY SHARING THOSE TIMES WITH YOU, WE ENJOY THAT YOU ENJOY THE DANGER AND DEFIANCE OF DEATH. AND WE ENJOY THE MEAL IT PROVIDES.**

Which was fair enough. Far be it from him to find fault in V taking all of the positives there were to be had.

He must have gone a little vacant in the face, because Dan was looking between Eddie and V curiously. Even when V was showing himself for anyone to actually see, they often liked to speak directly into Eddie’s brain. Anne and Dan had both gotten used to being able to tell when it was happening, and waiting for when whatever conversation they couldn’t hear was finished before they joined back in.

When he refocused on Dan, the doc nodded. “The adrenaline should be easy enough for you to find on your own, I think. Especially given your lifestyle. But I’m going to ask, for both me _and_ Annie, that you don’t do anything too stupid while you’re looking for the adrenaline high.” He pointed at V, who gave off a wave of amusement and a sense of being unimpressed. “That goes double for you, please. No getting this guy killed while you’re out thrill seeking.”

V snorted. It was an interesting human trait he’d picked up recently. **“WE WOULD NEVER LET EDDIE DIE. HE DIES, WE DIE.”**

Inside, Eddie felt V’s grip over him tighten slightly. A weird sensation, overall.

**OUR EDDIE.**

Eddie smiled and touched his chest, over his heart, where the sensation was the strongest.

“And the other thing? The… phen… phenethil…?”

“Phenethylamine,” Dan provided, nodding. “It’s a trace amine, and it’s produced by a lot of different animals, including humans.”

Eddie perked up at that, which made V also perk, though less enthusiastically. “Does that mean we could, like, just eat animal brains to get this thing?” Much as the idea of chomping down on stray dogs, cats or birds also made Eddie’s guts twist, it was still better than the idea of doing that to humans.

Dan shook his head, which made Eddie’s hope plummet until he followed up with his explanation.

“Better than that, Eddie. Phenethylamine isn’t really all that rare. You can find it in all sorts of foods, none of them particularly hard to get a hold of. Some of the highest concentrations of it aren’t even found in meat, but in beans and legumes. You can even get your own body to produce more on its own by exercising, and then just have the symbiote soak up the excess. Hell, if you’d rather not go through a big diet change, there are supplements out there I could recommend which would give you all the phenethylamine he could need.”

Eddie felt a little dizzy, unable to properly process what they were being told. Was it really going to be that easy? From V he was feeling much the same kind of overwhelmed feeling of disbelief, only in V’s case it was a sort of shock that something which they’d considered essential and rare could be so readily available.

Still not trusting this turn of fortune, Eddie asked, “Any, uh, like… side effects to my taking them? Like if they’re meant to help with a disorder or something, is upping my intake on this going to mess me up if I _don’t_ have it?”

Again, Dan shook his head. “There’s not been a great deal of research on this in humans yet. What we’re seeing for the most part says that it’s safe to take as a supplement, with the standard caveat of not taking _too_ much.” He glanced at V again, a rueful smile lurking on his lips. “Though in your case I doubt overdosing is going to be much of a concern. I’m sure your friend will happily take whatever your own body leaves on the table.”

V preened a little. **“YES. WE WILL TAKE EVERYTHING WHICH IS LEFT.”**

“What’s it likely to do to _me_ when I take it, though? Improve my eyesight or something?”

“Primarily it’s taken to help improve mood and increase focus and alertness,” Dan said, shrugging. “Phenethylamine helps to increase dopamine and serotonin, which are great for combating depression, if that’s something which you’ve been struggling with.”

Eddie didn’t bother even trying to grace that with an answer. He was pretty sure Dan was only phrasing it that way to be tactful, and it would be a little rude to laugh derisively at it.

“There are a couple other things which it might help out with, but those are the main ones. Like I said, it’s not been researched very thoroughly yet, and I think a lot of the effects that most people could expect for suddenly increasing their phenethylamine levels won’t be quite the same in your case.”

Eddie nodded, still dazed.

Alright, then. A new diet and a supplement regimen, and… and he’d be able to stop stalking the streets, looking for nasty people with tasty brains? It was better than he could have hoped for.

“Right. You got a list of foods I can add you my diet, then, doc? I think I’m hitting the store on the way home today.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I looked it up and, yeah. According to the Marvel wiki, symbiotes really like adrenaline as well as phenethylamine. Explains a few things, really.
> 
> \---
> 
> You can find me on  
> Tumblr: [@ehtarwrites](http://ehtarwrites.tumblr.com/)  
> Twitter: [@ehtarwrites](https://twitter.com/ehtarwrites)  
> Discord: @ehtarwrites#4962 
> 
> If anyone wants to come say hi or chat about nerdy things, hmu! ♥


	3. Chapter 3

The whole idea of ‘having to change his diet’ was kind of laughable at this point. Eddie wasn’t sure how much different he could possibly make it than it had already been changed with the whole live cannibalism thing. 

Cannibalism aside, he ate like a disaster and knew it. He ought to have been doing more to improve on his diet for a long time, but it was hard when: one, he tended to focus on his work to the detriment to everything else, and two, he was usually pretty damn broke. Eating well required something of an investment in time, attention and cash, and Eddie tended to run overdrawn on at least two of the three at any given time.

Still, the list which Dan had given him, as promised, wasn’t too exotic or expensive. And a lot of the things on the list included numbers listed next to the portion sizes, showing just how much phenethylamine was in each. Most of them also specified that the food in question be raw in order to get the highest concentration of phenethylamine. So _there_ was a lot of the planning thrown out the window, if all he had to do was munch on these things uncooked.

It wasn’t all that different from what he’d been doing with the humans, but he was doing his best _not_ to think about that – or the logical end of that thought train, which suggested that the brains he’d been eating would have been less effective if they’d been cooked…

God, his life had gotten really weird in the last year.

When he got home and put the grocery bags down on the counter, V was instantly into them, little tentacles coming out and diving straight into the bags.

_Hungry, are we?_

**WE’RE ALWAYS HUNGRY, EDDIE.**

_Well, that’s true. This isn’t all just lunch, I’ll have you know. This is meant to last more than a day._

The tentacles paused in their digging, one on the way out of a bag, wrapped around a bar of dark chocolate. There was a vague feeling of betrayal emanating from them, giving the distinct impression that Eddie was being stared at by a puppy he’d just kicked. **IT IS? BUT… THERE’S NOT _THAT_ MUCH…**

Eddie snorted, and shooed the tentacles out of the bags. V complied easily enough, though they didn’t let go of the candy bar. Eddie didn’t insist on it being dropped.

“There’s not _that much_ , no, but this is all supposed to be stuff full of that chemical you like so much. We’ll be eating this on top of what we already have, not instead of.”

V was quiet for a moment as Eddie went about putting everything away, apparently considering what he’d said. Eddie let them think, putting away the other five bars of dark chocolate away in a high cupboard – not that putting them up high would do a single thing to keep V from getting to them if they wanted them – and then the rest of the food. Mostly it consisted of nuts, just like Dan said it would. Peanuts, almonds, walnuts… he’d picked up some cashews as well, even though they didn’t appear on Dan’s list. But they were a favorite of his, and a quick search on his phone showed that they had _some_ phenethylamine, at least, so it counted as being a part of his new diet.

He’d also picked up a couple dozen eggs, ground beef, some salami, shrimp, more milk… he’d even picked up a tub of tofu to experiment with, since it looked like soy was the super food when it came to phenethylamine. There were also some roast soybeans to snack on, as a low effort alternative.

**DO YOU THINK THIS WILL REALLY WORK, EDDIE?** V fidgeted with the chocolate bar, turning the candy round and round without immediately devouring it. They hadn’t even really done much in the way of pulling away the wrapper. It was probably the clearest sign of when V was upset: when they didn’t immediately devour any food that was in front of them.

Eddie paused, still holding the bag of roast soybeans. Staring at its packaging, he couldn’t say that he felt very confident about it. He trusted Dan and knew the doc believed what he said, it was just… hard to believe that tofu and nuts were going to be a viable substitute for brains.

And of course V could feel that coming off of him perfectly well.

“I dunno,” he said aloud. “But it’s got to be worth a try, right? If we try out this new routine and it doesn’t look like it’s going to take, we’ll go back to the way we were doing things before. One or two Bad Guys every couple of weeks. Or we’ll try and figure out another alternative.” He smiled and reached up to stroke along the tentacle still holding the chocolate bar. “Don’t worry, bud. I’m not gonna let you starve.”

The tentacle wriggled slightly under his hand, pushing back up against him like a cat. A very smooth, hairless cat. **WE KNOW, EDDIE. BUT WE WANT YOU TO BE HAPPY AS WELL. THIS… SEEMS LIKE IT WOULD MAKE YOU HAPPIER THAN HUNTING.**

“Well, not going to deny that,” he said, putting the soybeans away. “I was made more for shopping than for munching people in alleyways. I’ll always be more comfortable hunting up sales than rapists.”

**YOU WERE MADE FOR US, AND WE WERE MADE FOR HUNTING,** V pointed out, the ‘we’ they used coming with the particular undertones of ‘We.’ **TOGETHER WE ARE A HUNTER, EDDIE, MEANT TO BRING DOWN OUR MEALS TOGETHER AND FEAST WHERE WE FIND THEM.**

The accompanying image, if they had still been at the start of their relationship, would have been enough to make him stumble. An image of Them, tracking and killing Bad People, devouring them and sating the hunger They felt gnawing away inside. Just eating and eating, blood and viscera trailing from Their claws, bones crunching between Their teeth… V had a very vivid imagination about certain things, and wasn’t terribly shy about sharing the scenes they came up with in order to get a point across clearly.

Eddie was used to it enough by now that he only twitched. And as much as he instinctively shied away from it and what it implied… there was still an appeal to it. A lot of that came directly from V – the anticipation of hunting and eating, of experiencing the Together in such a way, where they lost track of where one began and the other ended, and they truly became _They_ …

_I know, buddy,_ he said in his mind, pushing along as much reassurance through their bond as he could. Reassurance and affection, a little of the excitement he could feel on considering a hunt, with as little of the apprehension as possible. _We’re a good hunter, and I’m not ever going to try and take that away from Us completely. This is just… just to make it less of a **need**. There’s going to be times where We **can’t** go out hunting, I can guarantee it. And when that happens, we need to have alternative meals ready to go for you._

V seemed less than convinced. **BUT YOU DISLIKE HUNTING… EATING OTHER HUMANS SO MUCH. IF THIS DOES WORK THE WAY YOU AND DAN HOPE, THEN WHY WOULD YOU STILL HUNT?**

_Because it’s something that you… you need, V. Even if you’re getting all the nutrients that you need from beans, you’re not going to be happy unless you’re hunting, are you? And I want you to be happy. And the city can always use fewer Bad Guys._

Though Eddie could tell that V wasn’t entirely reassured, they still purred deep in his chest, pleased with the plan, the sort of compromise between what would make them both happy and comfortable. **THANK YOU, EDDIE. WE LOVE YOU.**

Eddie smiled, and scratched a little at the tentacle. _And I love you, too, you weird little alien._

V chuckled deep in Eddie’s mind, and began to unwrap the chocolate, more tentacles coming out to rip the packaging and scrunch it all neatly before tossing it in the waste bin.

Teeth came out, then, manifesting long enough to consume the candy directly. Eddie could have eaten it himself and V still gotten all of the benefit from it, but occasionally – often – V liked to feel and taste what they were eating directly. It was kind of cute to watch, really. Like a toothy snake chowing down on a chocolate bar. It was hard to accept that those teeth were any good at all when it came to anything _other_ than biting off heads, but Eddie had been surprised.

He’d been surprised by everything to do with V, really. Every turn seemed to reveal something new about them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise some chapters are going to be longer / more eventful than this. ~~Though the next chapter is a touch shorter than this one...~~ Chapter five will be longer, I swear! XD
> 
> \---
> 
> You can find me on  
> Tumblr: [@ehtarwrites](http://ehtarwrites.tumblr.com/)  
> Twitter: [@ehtarwrites](https://twitter.com/ehtarwrites)  
> Discord: @ehtarwrites#4962 
> 
> If anyone wants to come say hi or chat about nerdy things, hmu! ♥


	4. Chapter 4

Showering had been an experience Eddie didn’t think would change all that much. That had proved to be quite an idiotic thought, as it turned out.

V liked to be helpful.

Much of the time that resolved itself into taking care of solely internal matters, especially at first. As V grew more and more accustomed to Eddie, they took to running 24 hour maintenance on him, going through all of his systems and tweaking them, studying them, making sure that everything was running the very best it could. Anything which they found which seemed to be having trouble, they would heal and repair, and then tell Eddie about later. It had been quite the experience to have V tell him about the myriad problems which had been brewing and which hadn’t been diagnosed yet – which _couldn’t_ have been caught so early by any doctors.

He tried not to think too hard about just how sick he had been before V had got a hold of him, and just how many problems he would have had a few years down the line, when all of those problems would have made themselves known.

But he’d not been expecting _showering_ to be much different. Probably because he hadn’t thought about it until it actually came up.

Hell, the first couple of times Eddie had showered after V became a resident, V hadn’t done a thing other than run a continuous conversation in his head. They’d wanted to know everything about all of the soaps on the shelves, what they did and why. And then they’d wanted to know what was going on with things like razors and shaving foam, nail clippers and deodorant… It occurred to Eddie later that V could have just rifled through his brain to get all the information they wanted, but they seemed to prefer asking and getting Eddie to talk out loud.

It was kind of nice. It reminded him that he wasn’t alone.

It was after those first couple of times in the shower that V had decided that they were going to _help_.

The first time V decided to take over the scrubbing of Eddie’s hair, Eddie’s reaction hadn’t been the greatest. He’d screamed a little, convinced that his shampoo bottle had been full of spiders or something which were now creeping through his hair, pissed off at all this water stuff happening.

V hadn’t exactly been sympathetic to his initial terror. Their laughter had rung in his skull for a good five minutes.

Since then, they’d gotten a lot better about sharing space during the shower. V liked to be in charge of washing Eddie’s hair, applying, scrubbing, and rinsing out the shampoo. They’d even insisted on Eddie picking up a bottle of conditioner, telling Eddie that there was only so much they could do from the inside about his hair and scalp if he didn’t take care of it properly from the outside.

Eddie suspected that V was a little bit fascinated with the concept of hair, having none themself. They liked to play with it, even when they weren’t in the shower, and Eddie let them. It was soothing, having V pet through his hair at random times of the day. And he’d admit – the conditioner had made his hair feel better. Smell better, too, when V decided to stroke through it.

The shower happened to be one of those rare places where Eddie managed to surprise V with something new as well, and not just the other way around.

**EDDIE, WHAT IS THAT YOU’RE DOING?**

Eddie paused guiltily. It wasn’t the sort of thing you liked to hear out of nowhere when you were in the shower.

“What?”

**THAT THING YOU WERE DOING. PURRING? GROWLING?**

…oh.

“That was humming, V. I was humming a tune.”

V paused, and he could feel the symbiote shuffling through his head a little bit, looking for context. After a second, their attention returned. **IT’S NICE,** they observed. **AND IT MAKES YOU FEEL HAPPY TO DO IT.**

Eddie had flushed slightly, somehow more embarrassed at the revelation that he liked to sing in the shower than being naked and wet in front of an alien. “Well, yeah, I guess. It’s… nice to sing a little bit now and then.”

**YOU SHOULD DO IT MORE,** V had said, sounding very firm and definite. **IT MAKES YOU HAPPY, AND IT FEELS NICE.**

What sort of response was there to that?

“Well… maybe. I kind of got out of the habit once I started living with Annie.”

**DID SHE NOT LIKE SINGING?**

“No, it wasn’t that.” He picked up his scrubbing again, using it as a distraction. “I just got a little self-conscious when I realized how _well_ she could hear me. She mentioned how she hadn’t heard the particular song I’d decided to belt out one morning in a long time, and that it sounded a lot better than she remembered.”

**… THAT SOUNDS LIKE SHE _LIKED_ YOUR SINGING, EDDIE. WHY WOULD YOU BE EMBARRASSED?**

“I- I dunno. It’s just not something that I ever really wanted anyone to hear, I guess. I hadn’t thought about anyone else being able to hear me, so it came as a surprise when someone could.”

V paused. Eddie could practically _feel_ them trying to work out the logic on what he’d just told them. It didn’t seem like they were making much progress. V might have been right up inside his head, but human reasoning was still a bit of a learning curve.

**THERE’S NO ONE TO HEAR YOU NOW, EDDIE,** they pointed out eventually. **YOU CAN SING AS MUCH AS YOU WANT AND NOT FEEL EMBARRASSED.**

“ _You_ can hear me just fine, V.”

**YES. BUT WE ARE NOT OTHERS. WE ARE WE, AND THERE’S NO REASON TO BE EMBARRASSED.**

It was one of those times where, if Eddie just listened to the words V was saying in his head, then it really didn’t make much sense. He could see the point they were trying to make, but the argument they were using wasn’t very good on its face. But he could _feel_ what V meant, and that made all the difference. V wasn’t someone on the outside of him, they could feel everything what Eddie did, and that included all of the lovely endorphins which happened whenever he sang.

What point was there in being embarrassed ‘in front’ of someone who was in his head every hour of the day?

So he’d started humming more when they were in the shower. He still felt a little awkward about it at first, but the direct reassurance he got from V – the little waves of happiness and contentment in response to his humming – gave him more confidence.

Once he was used to it, it was incredibly relaxing. Standing in the shower, warm, scrubbing away while V worked on his hair and humming quietly to himself, which got V to respond with the symbiote equivalent of a purr… It was nice, and quickly became one of his favorite parts of the day. He started taking more showers, just to have that little bit of unwinding time. With how much more quickly they were with V taking over part of the cleaning duties, he didn’t worry about the water bill. It evened out in the end.

**THIS IS GOOD, EDDIE.**

He blinked at the words, spoken in a contented little rumble at the back of his mind, and smiled.

It really was. Who knew?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can find me on  
> Tumblr: [@ehtarwrites](http://ehtarwrites.tumblr.com/)  
> Twitter: [@ehtarwrites](https://twitter.com/ehtarwrites)  
> Discord: @ehtarwrites#4962 
> 
> If anyone wants to come say hi or chat about nerdy things, hmu! ♥


	5. Chapter 5

One of the biggest challenges of playing host to an alien symbiote, Eddie came to find, was just in keeping them _occupied_. It was a little bit like having a dog with him at all times, begging for attention, occupation, or what have you. Not that Eddie could really blame them. He could only imagine that it got boring just hanging out inside Eddie’s body, especially when he wasn’t up to much. When he was chasing up leads for a story or even just going out for groceries, there was _something_ happening, something to pay attention to.

But there was plenty of time when there was very little going on. Much more than he’d thought there had been, actually. Now that he had someone poking at him that they were bored whenever he had down time, it had become much more noticeable.

Eddie had learned to be independent. To not need having others around him in order to stay occupied, or to need to act as entertainment to other people, either. He had lived with Anne for a while, but she hadn’t exactly been clingy. They both had their own lives and had lived them separately for the most part, coming back together at the end of the day, or over lunch, and occasionally sharing a warm morning together.

Having someone with him literally 24/7 was a new experience, and it was somehow proving harder to adjust to than head chomping.

It might be best to admit that he was more of a cat person in the end.

Finding things which would occupy V’s attention became a joint effort. They both looked for hobbies which would occupy V whenever Eddie was asleep or when he was working on the actual writing part of his journalistic career.

At first Eddie had just left his laptop plugged in overnight for V to play with while he was asleep, since that seemed to be the time when V got the most bored. That had lasted a little while, but it’s effectiveness had faded fairly quickly. V fell into the same habit as a lot of humans, just cycling through the same handful of sites over and over again, and they were bored again.

So they’d gone looking for other things to occupy them.

It had made sense at the time when he’d gotten the videogame. It was something which would occupy V while he was working at the computer, doing research or playing phone tag for what felt like hours. A little bit like setting a kid in front of the TV while he was working, he supposed. He felt a little guilty about that… for about fourteen seconds. V wasn’t a child, and he wasn’t neglecting them. He was making sure that they weren’t losing their mind – and driving him out of his – by giving them something to do. How much could he possibly be neglecting them when they were literally attached to each other?

The first instinct had been to pick up fighting games – FPS games, brawlers, horror games, that sort of thing. It just seemed like the kind of thing V would automatically take to, and Eddie wanted to make sure that his symbiote was happy with whatever he had to play.

But then he’d actually thought about it, and decided that having an overexcited alien getting really into a fighting game for hours at a time while he was trying to work was probably a bad idea. He ought to be going for something a little bit quieter, absorbing, and most importantly, with _hours_ ’ worth of play time.

So he’d picked up Skyrim, an Assassin’s Creed game, and Viva Piñata; Lost in Paradise.

So far, V had been completely absorbed in Viva Piñata, and hadn’t so much as booted up either of the other two.

It was actually a little fascinating to watch. His big, badass, skull crunching alien was holding the controller in a nest of tentacles, watching the screen closely, listening to the instructions given by the character on screen as she explained in a gentle Irish accent how to go about repairing the colorful digital garden and attract even more colorful candy-filled animals. They listened closely, and followed the instructions all very carefully, fully absorbed in the experience of the game… Honestly, Eddie had been half thinking that V wouldn’t like _any_ of the games, and that they would have to find something else to entertain V while he was working.

He certainly hadn’t been expecting for V to become instantly enamored of the most childish game out of the three.

After a few minutes of watching V get settled into the experience, learning to use the controls, and generally standing by in case they needed anything broken down and explained – and watching in mild confusion as they took to the game so quickly – Eddie had gone to work, generally confident that V would be happy enough with the game. If they weren’t at any given point, then he was sure he would hear about it immediately.

The sounds of the game were easy to tune out after a while. It was a relatively quiet game, with only the occasional rise in volume, and Eddie felt as though he could concentrate one just his work for the first time in ages.

By the time he turned back around…

“Whoa.”

**“HELLO, EDDIE. ARE YOU DONE WITH YOUR WORK? CAN WE MAKE DINNER NOW?”**

The question was perfectly reasonable. Eddie had spent most of the day in front of his computer without moving, catching up on all of the work he’d let build up. Looking at what was on the television screen, though, it looked almost like he’d been camped out and typing for a couple of _days_ and just hadn’t noticed.

“You’ve uh. You’ve really taken to this game, huh?”

V, manifesting again as a thick snake-like creature from his shoulder – though with the requisite tentacles in order to hold the controller – looked back at the screen and gave a very toothy smile, his eyes going to slits.

**“IT’S FUN. THERE ARE A LOT OF OPTIONS FOR WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH YOUR GARDEN.”**

It took actual, physical effort not to laugh at the way V pronounced ‘garden.’ It sounded exactly like the tutorial character, Leafos. He knew because even while tuning out, that word had wriggled its way into his awareness. There was an even chance that _he_ would be pronouncing ‘garden’ the way she had been over the last couple of hours… and ‘piñata.’

On the screen, V had made a _lot_ of progress in his garden. He’d had a good look at it in the beginning, and it had been little more than a weed patch, complete with junk they were meant to clear out before they could get to planting their actual garden and attracting the titular piñata animals.

Even given the span of a day, it seemed like V had _flown_ through the gameplay.

The garden was a patchwork of green and bright rainbow colors. There were little fenced off areas – with proper fences – where there were rows of vegetables. There were giant trees and little houses where piñatas were congregating. There were stone pathways and sundials and little birdhouses. There were _lakes_ in there, and areas of long grass. And piñatas. Everywhere piñatas.

“I can see that. It looks like you’ve been having fun with the landscaping.”

The toothy head beside him bobbed in a nod. **“YES. THIS IS THE FOURTH COMPLETE DESIGN I HAVE DONE. I HAVE TO CHANGE THE LAYOUT AND PERCENTAGES OF CLIMATE TYPE DEPENDING ON THE PIÑATA I WANT TO ATTRACT AND MAKE A PART OF THE GARDEN.”** He turned a little to look at Eddie more directly, and his voice went low and conspiratorial. **“I’M TRYING TO ATTRACT A DOENUT RIGHT NOW, EDDIE. THEY’RE VERY PARTICULAR.”**

Eddie bit his lips. “Yeah? I’ll bet they are. Makes it better when you finally catch one, doesn’t it?”

V nodded, looking about as pleased as he had ever seen the symbiote be outside of having just eaten someone. **“YES. AND BETTER WHEN I CAN MAKE THEM BREED.”**

Eddie choked. Either that part of the game hadn’t been listed in the features, or V had been getting up to some weird internet searches while he was asleep. “B-breed?”

**“YES. TO MAKE MORE OF THEM, EDDIE.”** They grinned wide, meaning they nearly split their own head in half. **“AND THEN THEY CAN EAT EACH OTHER.”**

…Well, that certainly explained a part of the game’s appeal for V, at least. And was another little feature that he was pretty sure hadn’t been listed anywhere on the packaging. He would have remembered seeing something about the cute and colorful little piñatas _eating_ each other. It would have been a good selling point for the kids, honestly, though the parents probably would have balked at it.

Though the promise of piñata on piñata violence didn’t really answer the amount of detail and attention V had put into the layout of the garden itself. He was fairly certain that progression didn’t _require_ that it all look as neat and tidy as V’s layout was. So long as all the right bits were in there, Eddie was pretty sure it would all work exactly the same. V was putting that much effort into making it look nice because they _wanted_ to.

He felt when a thought occurred to V, a moment before they whipped their head round to look at him directly.

**“EDDIE! WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL US THAT SOME ANIMALS ARE FULL OF _CHOCOLATE?_** _”_

“They’re… they’re not, buddy. These guys are _piñatas_ , and piñatas in real life are toys.”

**“TOYS FULL OF _CHOCOLATE?_ ”**

“Well… yeah, I guess so?”

**“WE NEED TO GET SOME, EDDIE.”**

“What? No, we already have a stash of chocolates in the cupboard!”

**“EDDIE. ANIMALS. FULL OF CHOCOLATE.”** The symbiote stared at him. It was a little hard to tell, but it looked like they were going for something like a coaxing expression. **“PLEASE, EDDIE. CAN WE GET PIÑATAS?”**

If there was another thing which having an alien living in his brain had taught him, it was that he was a little bit of a pushover. “Fine. Next time we’re near a party store or something we’ll look for a piñata.”

Pleasure coiled through Eddie’s chest, happiness and a little bit of anticipation. **“THANK YOU, EDDIE.”**

He kept himself from sighing. “You’re welcome, V.”

As they went to the kitchen and started working on making dinner for the night, V shared some of their memories of playing the game, adding commentary here and there, such as which piñatas were their favorites or what they planned on doing next. In a couple of places Eddie had to correct some assumptions they were beginning to make about animals which _weren’t_ piñatas.

“No, V, I don’t think that ants will go out of their way to start fights with bees.”

**“NOT EVEN IF THEY’RE ENCROACHING ON THEIR TERRITORY?”**

He thought for a second. “You know what, probably. But that’s a special circumstance. I don’t know how often they’ll throw down when there’s nothing to fight _about_.”

**“CAN WE LOOK IT UP ON THE INTERNET TONIGHT?”**

“Sure. I’m not sure how easy that’ll be to find, but we can give it a try.”

**“WHAT ABOUT ANIMALS CHANGING COLORS? CAN THEY DO THAT?”**

“…Depends on the animal. There are plenty who change colors depending on the season, turning white in winter so they blend in better. Pretty sure the white coats are warmer for them, too.”

**“OR IF THEY EAT SOMETHING DIFFERENT?”**

“Uh… some, but not many, I don’t think. Flamingos are pink because of a certain kind of shrimp they eat…”

**“BUTTERFLIES.”**

Eddie stopped, partway to putting the sheet of tater tots in the oven. They were still working on improving the overall diet, but Eddie doubted that the tater tots would be going anywhere anytime soon. “Excuse me?”

**“BUTTERFLIES, EDDIE!”** V wiggled slightly in their place on his shoulder. A couple of tentacles reached out and set the timer for the tots. Behind them he could hear a couple of other appendages getting out the plates they would be using later. **“THE BUTTERFLIES CHANGED COLOR DEPENDING ON THE KIND OF FLOWERS THEY ATE. THEY STARTED OUT WHITE, AND THEN CHANGED TO THE COLOR OF THE FLOWER.”**

He slid the tray into the oven and shut it. “I’m not sure that that’s a real thing, buddy. Pretty sure that’s just a mechanic in the game.”

V gave that some consideration.

**“YOU DON’T KNOW _EVERYTHING_ , EDDIE. THERE MIGHT BE SOME THAT DO THAT YOU DON’T KNOW ABOUT.”**

Eddie chuckled, and reached up to pat the little head hovering next to his own. “That’s true. We can look that up later tonight as well. Yeah?”

V grinned again, a deep mental purr accompanying the patting. **“YES!”**

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a little something for everybody in Viva Piñata. ;D
> 
> \---
> 
> You can find me on  
> Tumblr: [@ehtarwrites](http://ehtarwrites.tumblr.com/)  
> Twitter: [@ehtarwrites](https://twitter.com/ehtarwrites)  
> Discord: @ehtarwrites#4962 
> 
> If anyone wants to come say hi or chat about nerdy things, hmu! ♥


	6. Chapter 6

They were getting into a pretty reliable routine.

They would wake in the morning and Eddie would ask V if they’d found anything interesting on the internet while he’d been asleep – they were still looking for a good hobby for V to pass the time at night. Then they would head to the living room and go through Eddie’s yoga. It had taken a while to settle on a time to do his sets. Normally he would save things like that for later in the day, but stretching seemed to work better before he’d weighed himself down with food, and they helped to wake him up.

Once the stretches were done, they’d head to the shower. Some days they’d have an evening shower as well – especially if it happened to be one of those days which involved hunting, or even just a lot of sweating throughout the day. But the morning had a guaranteed shower, where V got to scrub his hair, and Eddie got to feel like he was melting into the drain. Most mornings, this was where they would be planning out the rest of their day, going through the itinerary and setting up checklists.

After the shower they had breakfast. Even breakfast was starting to develop a bit of a routine around it. Eggs were appearing a lot more, for example. Eggs were high in phenethylamine, and they were easy to add to the diet. Dan’s list pointed out that, like many of the measurements provided, _raw_ eggs had a higher concentration than cooked… He was avoiding that for the time being, although raw cookie dough could be an option in the future. Eddie would cook up a batch of eggs, often with a side of sausages or hash browns, depending on V’s mood. There would also be the daily phenethylamine supplement, which Eddie would either swallow and would flick into the air for V to snatch and eat directly. And then Eddie would have his morning coffee to round it all out – although that had changed a little bit recently.

**EDDIE, WHAT IS A ‘MO-CHA’?**

He managed not to startle at all when V’s voice butted in on him while he was standing in line at the café. They’d been on their way to an interview, but were actually a little early. Somehow the morning traffic had been reasonable, and the extra few minutes Eddie had scheduled they got to keep for themselves. So he’d wandered in to a corner café with the idea of grabbing something quick and strong. Though the wraps they had on display in the case also looked pretty good…

He was going to have to start watching his food impulses. He _knew_ he didn’t used to be this hungry all the time, and even with two metabolisms to contend with there was a distinct possibility that it was going to get hard to see his toes soon.

**EDDIE!**

He did jump that time. He ignored the looks he got. He was getting used to them.

_A mocha is a special kind of drink, V,_ he thought, grateful that V could hear his thoughts and didn’t require him to talk out loud. Not that he didn’t forget that from time to time…

_It’s basically a coffee with some chocolate added to it. Some of them get a lot fancier than that, but that’s basically what it is._

There was a distinct perking of interest at that.

**CHOCOLATE… CAN WE GET A MO-CHA, EDDIE? WE WANT TO TRY IT!**

He hesitated. He’d really been looking forward to just a plain old coffee, maybe jumped up a little bit on the caffeine side of things. The interview they were going to looked like it was going to be fairly dull, and he wanted all the advantages he could get to not only stay awake, but to look like he was interested. _You sure, V? I could get us two drinks, a coffee and a hot chocolate, and we can drink the chocolate a little later._

He felt V hesitate at the offer. V had been introduced to hot chocolate already, and it was a drink the symbiote absolutely _adored_. There had been a few times when Eddie had had to refuse to make any just because it was already too hot outside. It had resulted in more than a little sulking. So Eddie offering to get one for them now, when put against a drink they’d not even tried yet, was cause enough for some consideration.

**YES. WE ARE SURE,** they said eventually. **WE WANT TO TRY MO-CHA. IT HAS CHOCOLATE, WHICH WE LIKE, AND COFFEE, WHICH YOU LIKE. WE WANT TO DRINK SOMETHING WE BOTH WILL LIKE AT THE SAME TIME.**

Eddie felt himself blush just a little, but… wasn’t quite sure why. It wasn’t what V had _said_ , he didn’t think, but something in the way they had _felt_ when saying it. It was hard to pin down, now, the feeling already fuzzing out around the edges and losing shape. Whatever it had been, it had been warm and positive, at least…

_Alright, then. We’ll get a mocha and see how well you like it._

On the way out he’d picked up one of the wraps as well. Self-control on food cravings was going to have to be a work in progress.

On the first sip of the mocha, Eddie actually looked to make sure that V wasn’t _actually_ melting out of him, and that it was just a very strong impression he was getting based on V’s reaction to the drink.

_You like that?_ He smiled around the cup as he took another sip.

**YESSSSS,** V hissed, and Eddie blushed again, though this time he knew why. Even in his head, that sounded vaguely sexual. **YES, EDDIE, THIS IS VERY GOOD. WE LIKE MO-CHA!**

Eddie hid his grin behind the lip of the cup, and resisted the urge to swig the whole thing down at once. _I’m glad you do, buddy. I think I like it better than I remember, too_.

Quite possibly that impression was all from V, though. He could feel how much they were reveling in the flavors of not only the chocolate, but in the caffeine provided by the coffee in the drink as well. The things which Dan had listed off as ‘things which the symbiote liked,’ both seemed to be naturally occurring uppers, so caffeine would fit right in. Adrenaline, caffeine, phenethylamine, they were all things whose primary function – at least in humans – was to provide a little bit of a rush.

Which didn’t exactly surprise him. It seemed like the symbiotes had been built for rushes from the ground up. Despite current impressions, which included a contented mental purr coming from somewhere around  the region of Eddie’s stomach.

They went to the interview perked up from the combination of caffeine and sugar, and it passed by a little easier than Eddie had been expecting.

On their way back, they stopped in at the café again for another, larger mocha. On the drive home, they also stopped at a store to pick up what they would need to make mocha at home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can find me on  
> Tumblr: [@ehtarwrites](http://ehtarwrites.tumblr.com/)  
> Twitter: [@ehtarwrites](https://twitter.com/ehtarwrites)  
> Discord: @ehtarwrites#4962 
> 
> If anyone wants to come say hi or chat about nerdy things, hmu! ♥


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise!
> 
> This chapter is so very short, I decided it have an extra posting day for it, lol. Several people have said to me not to worry about the chapter lengths - you are all angels, I love you - but this one really is bite-sized, so consider it a bonus! I'll be continuing with the regular schedule after this, so another chapter tomorrow and every other day after that! 
> 
> ♥ Thank you for reading this silly thing, everyone! ♥

**EDDIE, WE WOULD LIKE A GARDEN.**

It probably wasn’t the weirdest thing he had ever woken up to, but Eddie was putting it down as pretty up there, anyway.

“Ngh… a wha? Ga’den?” He tried to swim his way back towards consciousness and surface of all his blankets and pillows, but it was hard to tell which way was up. He’d gotten a lot more mobile in the night, recently. He was usually lucky to find his head on the same end of the bed in the morning as it had been when he’d gone to sleep.

**YES. WE WOULD LIKE A GARDEN OF OUR OWN. WE WANT TO GROW MANY THINGS, LIKE IN THE GAME.**

Eddie frowned, trying to make sense of that. “The… game. The piñata game?”

**YES.**

“Uh huh.” He yawned wide enough that his jaw cracked. “You know that we’re a little limited on space, right? Apartments don’t tend to come with much in the way of backyards.”

**WE _KNOW_ THAT, EDDIE.** V sounded annoyed. **BUT WE DID RESEARCH WHILE YOU WERE ASLEEP! THERE ARE WAYS WE CAN HAVE A GARDEN INSIDE THE APARTMENT!**

V was excited, and they sent images to him of pots and window planters, hanging pots trailing creepers and wall installations which probably cost more than a couple months’ worth of rent to build and keep running properly. More than the planters themselves, though, was how V pictured them thriving with greenery. Every pot full of thick, glossy leaves, overflowing and trailing creepers, searching for even more dirt to dig into and take over the apartment completely. There were all sorts of plants in V’s imagination – probably the result of his research as well. Thick and glossy, delicate and small, blade-like leaves and delicate fluttering things… There were plenty of flowers in V’s imagined garden, as well. Those planters V put nearest the windows, and Eddie got the distinct impression that they hoped to attract butterflies with them.

He smiled, still buried under blankets and pillows, trying to imagine V taking care of a mini Eden inside their apartment.

_You know, I’m kind of terrible at growing things,_ he thought, bringing up the memory of the last plant he’d tried to keep alive. The poor thing had put up a valiant effort, but hadn’t been able to survive his incompetence. _You might be fighting an uphill battle if I’m involved in it at all._

Something like a mental snort came through the bond between them, amused but at the same time a little bit exasperated. **WE KNOW YOU ARE TERRIBLE AT GROWING PLANTS, EDDIE. THAT IS WHY _WE_ WILL TEACH _YOU_.**

_Oh, an expert on how to grow and care for Earth plants now, are you?_

**I COULD HARDLY BE WORSE THAN YOU, LOSER.** A tentacle snaked its way under the covers – or maybe it had always been there – and poked Eddie in the ribs.

He jerked away from it with a yelp. He was ticklish there and V _knew_ that. “Hey, hey, no fair, I’m still not awake!”

**YES YOU ARE, EDDIE. NOW GET UP.**

“Nope. Still asleep. This is all a dream and I’ve still got another three hours of sleep to look forward to.” A little bit of blind groping got him a pillow, which he immediately threw over his own face and held there. “Be a useful parasite and wake me up then, would you?”

There was a low snarl, and Eddie suddenly found himself lifting up out of bed, his body working of its own accord. Or rather, of _V’s_ accord. They weren’t terribly gentle about it, either. They jerked him up out of the covers and to his knees, and then suddenly let go, allowing him to flop back down again onto his face.

“Oof.”

**NOT A PARASITE, EDDIE,** V said, his tone as close to sweet as they ever managed to get to. **NOW IT’S TIME TO GET UP AND DO YOUR STRETCHING. WE CAN TALK ABOUT WHAT SORTS OF SEEDS TO GET WHILE WE’RE IN THE SHOWER.**

His life had definitely gotten a little strange over the last year.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can find me on  
> Tumblr: [@ehtarwrites](http://ehtarwrites.tumblr.com/)  
> Twitter: [@ehtarwrites](https://twitter.com/ehtarwrites)  
> Discord: @ehtarwrites#4962 
> 
> If anyone wants to come say hi or chat about nerdy things, hmu! ♥


	8. Chapter 8

Overall, the new diet and supplements seemed to be working out really, really well. Eddie could tell that V still wanted to go out hunting, but it wasn’t because they were _hungry_.

And for the first time in what felt like goddamn _ages_ , Eddie finally felt like he could go a few minutes without wanting to eat an entire restaurant worth of hamburgers. And then the same amount of steaks. And then an entire shop full of chocolates. It finally felt safe again to walk past places wafting food smells without being in danger of diving in and eating everything in sight.

It was nice to be reasonably certain that he wasn’t going to be hopping into another lobster tank because they just looked _so good_.

But while V didn’t seem to be all that _hungry_ anymore, they were certainly still craving the hunt itself. Eddie had been expecting it. He knew that V took a lot of pleasure out of hunting, and out of terrifying their food right before they dug in. Eddie couldn’t… _really_ relate to _all_ of that… but he could understand it well enough. He’d felt the same spikes of joy and dark satisfaction whenever They had gone out to eat, and he couldn’t say that all of those had stemmed entirely from V… It just wasn’t something which he actively wanted to go out and find himself.

So with no actual _need_ to eat anyone, it seemed reasonable to try and find an alternative to satisfy whatever it was which V _did_ need.

With phenethylamine, caffeine, and various tasty things like potatoes and chocolate all covered, that left one big thing unchecked which They got during a hunt, and which they hardly got anywhere else. Save on some of their faster drives through the city, of course. Adrenaline.

Which was why they were standing outside of a Six Flags.

When he’d tried to explain where they were going to V, he’d been met with mostly confusion, even when he’d opened up his memories as wide as he could for them to see for themselves. It had been a while since Eddie had gone to an amusement park, but his memories were still pretty clear. It ought to have done the trick and cleared up V’s confusion.

Somehow it hadn’t, and it wasn’t until they were standing outside the gates and walking in that V really seemed to perk up.

It was probably the shrieking which provided that last little clue they needed.

**A PLACE FOR FUN?** V said, still a little hesitant.

_Sure is!_

Really, it had been so long since he’d last been in an amusement park, and he wasn’t sure why. Probably good reasons, like working and not having the time, but really, that wasn’t much of an excuse, was it? Already he could feel his heartbeat picking up as he listened to the coasters rattling, the screams of the riders as they swooped and dove. Even the smells of food were effective for making his heart pick up its pace. It was all a part of the experience of a park, and his entire body knew that.

_I think you’ll really like coming here. And there are a few other places like this which would be easy for us to get to, so if the coasters here get boring we can switch it up a bit._

Internally, Eddie could feel V swirling around his entire body. He got the sense that they really, _really_ wanted to come out for themself, either manifesting the way they normally did while they were at home as a little head and tentacles, or ideally as Venom so They might experience this new place as completely as possible.

Thankfully they didn’t give in to that particular impulse. Eddie had planned the trip to be as early in the day as they could manage to avoid the crowds as much as possible – he didn’t know what V would be like in long lines, and he wasn’t eager to find out. But there were still plenty of people around, and Eddie wanted to have to make a quick getaway even less than he wanted to deal with the crowds.

**A PLACE FOR FUN,** V repeated, listening as one coaster went down a nearly sheer drop, the passengers screaming the whole way. **BUT A PLACE WHERE YOU COME TO BE SCARED?**

_Well… I suppose so, yeah? But it’s not like it’s a place where we’re **really** scared all that much. It’s just a thrill, and thrills are fun._

**EDDIE, YOUR HEART RATE IS ALREADY CLIMBING, AND YOU ARE BEGINNING TO SWEAT. IT’S TOO COLD FOR YOU TO BE SWEATING THIS MUCH UNLESS SOMETHING WAS WRONG.**

Concern emanated from the symbiote. V was intrigued by the park, but as seemed to always be the case, their first concern was Eddie. It was sweet… but also a little annoying when Eddie was trying to be the one taking care of V for once.

_Excitement, that’s all._ He did his best to breathe and calm his heart down a little. He sent feelings of anticipation and eagerness through the bond, trying to communicate that he was looking forward to the rides, even if it meant that he was going to get the pants scared off of him in the process. _It’s been a while since I’ve been to one of these places, so the excitement has had a chance to build up._

**WE ARE NOT CERTAIN THIS IS HEALTHY FOR YOU, EDDIE.** The feeling of V inside him travelled to his heart, coiling round gently, feelings of concern clear through the bond. **YOU’RE ALREADY UNDER STRESS, AND YOU WANT TO SPEND THE ENTIRE DAY HERE? WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN YOU GET ON ONE OF THE RIDES?**

They were working their way through the gate and the ticket buying process, so he couldn’t really encourage V to come out where he could stroke them reassuringly. But he _could_ put one of his hands over his heart where V was nestled.

_Don’t worry so much. I promise I can handle the roller coasters just fine. I’ve done it plenty of times before. Besides, We’ve gone through a lot more stress before, and we’ve lived through it all, right?_

The silence he got in response was a little telling. As best as he was able, Eddie tried to send the _feeling_ of stroking V’s head reassuringly, like soothing a stressed cat.

_It’s alright, V. Trust me on this the way I trust you to keep me safe._

That resulted in a rather confused knot of emotions which Eddie had some trouble figuring out or interpreting. The best he could figure for most of it was happy, but still worried. He supposed that was an improvement.

**ALRIGHT, EDDIE. WE TRUST YOU.**

He grinned, and gave his chest a little pat. _Good! Now that that’s settled, let’s go pick a good first ride to try out. I think we should go for the really popular ones before the park fills up too much._

**AND YOU SAID YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH HEIGHTS…**

Eddie chuckled, and headed to one of the nearest rides. 

It was possibly one of the best days he’d spent in a long time. After about the first half of the first ride, V got over his anxieties that Eddie’s heart might not be able to handle it – it seemed like their concern had really been that Eddie was deliberately putting them in a position which he found terrifying. But once they’d gone on the first slow rise – with Eddie’s heart hammering faster and faster the higher they went – and then the immediate plummet, and Eddie’s system became a wash of adrenaline, V seemed to see the merits in coming to the park.

The little symbiote _reveled_ in the rides after that, eagerly pointing out every ride they thought would be best to go on next. Which was all of them. All at once.

He even went on the Pounce & Bounce and the SkyScreamer – both of which were fairly low key for thrills in general, but both went very high, and caused a wonderfully terrifying wash of adrenaline for V to enjoy.

They went on ride after ride until they’d hit practically everything in the park. The Kong, the Medusa, the Chaos Coaster… the only rides they didn’t get to were the ones meant more for kids, and that was only because Eddie insisted that they give them a miss.

**BUT EDDIE, THEY LOOK LIKE THEY COULD BE FUN AS WELL!**

_Yeah, and they **might be** … if I were still about four feet tall. Max._

**YOU THINK YOU ARE TOO BIG?**

_I know I am, bud. Those rides are meant for children._

**GAMES ARE MEANT FOR CHILDREN AS WELL, EDDIE, BUT YOU GOT THOSE FOR ME TO PLAY.**

_Well, yeah… But those are at home, and not where everyone can see! Besides, only one of those games is considered ‘for kids.’ And even then, it’s not **really** little kids…_

**… EDDIE, ARE YOU EMBARRASSED TO BE SEEN ON THE RIDES?**

V sounded entirely too delighted by the idea that Eddie would be embarrassed by getting on a coaster meant for, at best, pre-teens.

_I-It’s more than that! There’s a matter of practicality to consider!_ He did his best to imagine what it would look like. A train full of kids aged 7 – 12, plus Eddie, crammed into a tram by himself and his knees drawn up nearly to his ears in order to fit properly. _It just wouldn’t work very well, alright?_

There was the sound of deep throated chuckling inside his head. **ED-DIE IS EMBARR-ASSED…**

_Oh, shut up, bug. Let’s go on the Crazy Coaster again. You liked that one and the line is short right now._

**I HOPE WE GET TO GO BACKWARDS FOR MOST OF THE RIDE!**

_Of course you do._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can find me on  
> Tumblr: [@ehtarwrites](http://ehtarwrites.tumblr.com/)  
> Twitter: [@ehtarwrites](https://twitter.com/ehtarwrites)  
> Discord: @ehtarwrites#4962 
> 
> If anyone wants to come say hi or chat about nerdy things, hmu! ♥


	9. Chapter 9

It was a good thing that Eddie had landed that big interview when he had. It had opened a lot of doors, as had his series of articles all revolving around the gone-boom Life Foundation. It brought with them a fairly reliable income. As reliable as a free-lance journalist ever got, anyway. At least the name ‘Eddie Brock’ had some stock again these days, and he could depend on having a budget which wasn’t in the negatives.

It was also a pretty good thing that he didn’t mind living beneath his means, apartment wise. He’d moved out of the little shit-box he’d been living in when V had first come into his life, but he hadn’t really gone overboard and hunted up a _nice_ apartment to move into. He’d gone for slightly better than what he’d had, picking and choosing one which had a policy about noise after a certain time of night, but other than that had gone as cheaply as he could.

And it was a good thing, considering the amount of money he was spending on food, games, yoga classes and DVDS, bulk chocolate, outings to amusement parks, and now… dirt.

**“IT’S NOT JUST DIRT, EDDIE!”** V responded to his private thoughts out loud, pausing in his perusal of the seed packets they’d picked up at the store that afternoon. **“IT’S FERTILIZED SOIL WITH MULCH. AND IT’S GOING TO BE THE START OF OUR GARDEN, SO DON’T SCOWL AT IT.”**

Eddie raised a brow, patting down the _soil_ into one of the dozen or so planters they had also picked up. “Why, will scowling make the seeds too shy to sprout?”

**“IT’S JUST RUDE.”**

“Oh, well, sorry for being rude to d—to _soil_.”

**“EDDIE…”**

“What? I promise, I won’t pull faces at the seedlings, okay?” He paused in his patting, a thought occurring to him. “Why _did_ we just get seeds, V? Wouldn’t it have been easier to start out with plants? They had those at the store as well, plants already grown up and ready to go.”

The little black head shook from side to side emphatically. **“THIS WAY IS BETTER. THIS WAY WE GET TO KNOW EXACTLY HOW THE PLANTS ARE BEING RAISED AND CARED FOR.”**

Eddie chuckled. “You’re really gung-ho on this, aren’t you? Who woulda guessed it, a carnivorous alien invader getting all protective and picky about the way they grow their flowers.”

Eddie wasn’t looking at them, but he could feel a difference in V through their bond. He could feel how quiet their thoughts became, how they withdrew very slightly into themself. A second ago they had been a bright little light in the corner of Eddie’s awareness, happy as they sorted through the packets of seeds and waited for Eddie to finish up setting up the planters. Now that brightness had dimmed a little, and it was as though V were attempting to withdraw so far into themself that they disappeared. When he turned back to look at them, their body language was matching the internal impression.

The tentacles holding the packets of seeds – all flowers of various colors – had dipped a little bit, and V’s head bowed to follow them. They didn’t look up at Eddie, though they could tell he was looking at them questioningly.

“Hey, what’s up? Was there a kind of flower you wanted that we forgot or something?”

**“NO, EDDIE. …WE… WE’RE SORRY THAT WE WERE EVER HERE TO CONQUER. WE DIDN’T KNOW THEN WHAT WE KNOW NOW, AND WE REGRET WHAT WE- WHAT WE _COULD_ HAVE DONE.”**

Eddie blinked. Well, that was new. He didn’t think he’d ever actually _heard_ V express anything like regret when it came to the near-invasion of Earth and the devouring of everything on it which moved. He’d felt something throb across their bond from time to time which felt as though that _might_ be what V was feeling, but he’d never pushed to know what it was. Just because they shared as much as they did didn’t mean that Eddie was entitled to _every_ thought and feeling V had.

“V, it’s okay. Well, I mean, _no_ , it’s not okay that you were going to eat the planet and all. But you got nothing to apologize over now. You didn’t actually go through with it. You saved the planet from your own kind. You went up against _Riot_ —“

**“BUT WE _DID_ INTEND TO DO EXACTLY WHAT YOU SAY, EDDIE.”** Their head dipped down even lower, waves of something suspiciously close to guilt coming from them. **“WE CAME HERE TO EAT AND DESTROY, AND THEN TO MOVE ON. WE HAD DONE IT BEFORE, AND WOULD DO IT AGAIN AND AGAIN UNTIL THE UNIVERSE WAS STRIPPED BARE. BUT THEN WE… WE MET YOU. AND WE SAW HOW BEAUTIFUL THIS PLANET IS, AND WE UNDERSTOOD HOW TERRIBLE IT WOULD BE IF IT WERE ALL TO DISAPPEAR. IF YOU WERE TO DISAPPEAR.”**

V paused, and Eddie remained silent, a little stunned. He knew that V had had a change of heart – or whatever it was they had in there – and decided that they liked Earth too much to destroy it…

Had their bond really influenced V as much as that, as early as that?

**“BUT NOW WE DO UNDERSTAND,”** they went on, their head picking up a little to look Eddie in the eye. **“WE UNDERSTAND, AND WE WANT TO EXPERIENCE THE BEAUTY OF THIS PLANET MORE THAN EVER. AND WE WANT TO CONTRIBUTE TO IT.”** They held up the packets in their tentacle, shaking them slightly so that the seeds inside rattled softly, like captured rain. **“WE WILL MAKE THIS PLANET EVEN MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN BEFORE.”**

Eddie blinked rapidly. It wasn’t the words themselves, or at least he didn’t think so. It was just how _earnest_ they were, and how clearly he could feel that through the bond. V meant it. They wanted to do things which would leave the planet in better shape than how they’d found it. They wanted to contribute to its beauty, to all of the things which made it good and a home. With a start he realized that _he_ had contributed to that somewhat, by insisting that as Venom They only ate those who were Bad People. By eating only Bad People, They were directly lowering the level of bad in the world – if only a tiny bit – and making it a better place to live for all of the Good People.

“That’s really… really sweet, V,” he said, doing his best to hide what sort of reaction he was having – though he was sure that V could feel it all just fine through the bond. He hadn’t learned how to keep anything hidden from the connection yet, so it was a bit like a constant air horn.

He went back to filling up the planters, only half focusing on the task, vaguely hoping that they’d gotten enough soil to fill them all up. It wasn’t really stretching as far as he’d thought it would.

“And you know…” He paused, feeling as V turned his attention back to him, even though he wasn’t facing them. “I think you’re doing a good job of that. Making the planet a better place and all. Just… just by being here.”

Surprise throbbed across the bond to him, intermingled tightly with a healthy dose of disbelief.

While Eddie might not have learned how to _keep_ his feelings from going across that connection, he had learned a little bit about how to deliberately _send_ some of what he felt. So he sent his own honest feelings on the matter, how much he believed that V, and how They were helping to make things better around Them. How much it was all due to V’s influence, and how much he appreciated that they were there, with him. How much he wanted V to stay with him, and how much it would hurt if V were ever to leave…

He overwhelmed V’s disbelief with his certainty, until V’s doubt crumbled away, and there was a hesitant mirroring of Eddie’s emotions. Happiness to be with him and a distinct desire that they should remain They for as long as possible. And underlying that desire was a conviction that They would make anything which seemed impossible _possible_ out of sheer will, so long as it meant that they remained together.

**…WE ARE GLAD WE ARE HERE, EDDIE. AND WE WILL NEVER LEAVE. SO LONG AS YOU WANT US.**

Eddie smiled. _Well, that works out perfectly then, doesn’t it?_

Pleasure came in gentle waves, echoed back by his own. There was a gentle touch of a tentacle against his cheek, and Eddie reached up to catch it in his fingers. Without thinking, he pressed his lips to the tentacle, reaffirming the affection which was flowing so freely between them.

He did it without thinking, and even once his brain caught up with what he was doing… it felt fine. It felt easy and natural to make that kind of a gesture. He tried to think of why it _shouldn’t_ feel right, why he ought to be weirded out with himself, but… it really didn’t work. It was just like those few days when he’d been trying to get himself to react to the idea that V had full on and passionately kissed him while they had been riding around in Annie, and… hadn’t been able to.

And really, if it felt fine, then why should he _try_ and make it feel weird?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little dose of feels for everyone. :3
> 
> I've hit the end of where I've gotten stuff edited. Oops. Guess I know what I'm doing tomorrow. ^^;;
> 
> \---
> 
> You can find me on  
> Tumblr: [@ehtarwrites](http://ehtarwrites.tumblr.com/)  
> Twitter: [@ehtarwrites](https://twitter.com/ehtarwrites)  
> Discord: @ehtarwrites#4962 
> 
> If anyone wants to come say hi or chat about nerdy things, hmu! ♥


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little bit later than usual, I fell behind a bit on the whole editing thing. ^^;; Enjoy, everyone! ♥

That was another thing which Eddie was spending money on which he hadn’t spent money on before, and which he wouldn’t have expected to be on the list of new expenses when taking on the care and feeding of his very own resident symbiote:

Craft supplies.

It had taken a while for V to come up with something which they wanted to try while Eddie was sleeping. There had been the idea of just continuing to play video games, but even with V’s mild obsession to collect every single piñata in the game and to design the most beautiful garden possible, it was going to get boring pretty quickly if they played it that much. And the other games which they had on the shelf at the moment tended towards being loud, so not terribly good to play while there was a sleeping human nearby.

Given how much V liked Viva Piñata, he had it in mind to pick up a couple more games like it in the future. Maybe Animal Crossing, or Harvest Moon. If he decided he hated his own wallet _a lot_ and wanted to risk V going nuts on in-game purchases, he’d think about picking up one of the Sims games. Though the idea of what they would do when in charge of that many humans was vaguely unsettling…

But no, after a lot of surfing around on the internet for things which might catch their interest, they had settled on…

“ _Knitting_.”

Eddie stared at the wall of various knitting tools. He’d known coming into the store that he’d be faced with a lot of options, and that he’d be confounded by most of them. He’d never tried out knitting himself, so he was lost from the start, and knew that he would be. But he’d also expected that the majority of what he’d be faced with would just be… you know. Needles and yarn. What was staring back at him was a mixture of needles, hooks, hoops, cards, pamphlets, bags, tiny rings… Was _all_ of it necessary, or only some of it?

**WE’RE SORRY, EDDIE, WE’RE NOT SURE. WE JUST KNOW WE NEED NEEDLES AND YARN… NOT WHAT SIZE, TYPE, OR IF ANYTHING ELSE IS NEEDED.**

Eddie sighed, readjusting his grip on the shopping basket. _It’s alright, V. This is new for both of us. I probably should have looked to see what a ‘startup kit’ would have in it before coming._

Mercifully, he was only left standing and staring in the aisle – with other customers walking awkwardly around him – for a little longer before an associate came up to him. “Hello, sir! Can I help you find anything?”

Eddie turned gratefully to the employee, a young woman with blonde hair tied up into a neat bun at the nape of her neck. She had a professional smile on her face, but she didn’t give the impression that she was hating the fact that she had to talk to him, so that was nice. Her nametag said ‘Sara.’

“Yeah, if you don’t mind,” Eddie said, giving her an embarrassed smile and hoping she would take pity on him if she knew up front that he was a clueless moron. “I’m not exactly sure what I’m meant to be getting, here, and…” He motioned at the wall of mysterious items all neatly labeled for the initiated.

Sara’s smile became a little more genuine. “A little overwhelming, isn’t it? Do you have a list with you of what you need to get? If you were given one then we shouldn’t have any trouble.”

“Ah… no, not really. See, I’m just getting started in all of this, and I’m not sure what I should get that’s good for a beginner.”

“Oh!” Surprise flickered across her face and was gone again. Apparently she’d thought he’d been sent to pick things up for someone else, which… wasn’t exactly _wrong_ , but not quite right, either. “I see. And I see the problem with being a little overwhelmed with all of this,” she said, taking her turn to motion at the wall. “Well, we should still be able to get you set up without too much trouble. Are you attending a class, or have someone at home teaching you?”

V probably didn’t count, since they were technically the student in this case, and neither of them knew anything about knitting yet, save that it involved using needles to make things out of yarn. He shook his head. “Nope, I’m on my own for this.”

**NOT QUITE.**

_Shush, hon._

“I was thinking of using online tutorials and videos to get the basics down,” he said, hoping that nothing odd had shown on his face with V speaking to him.

If anything had, Sara didn’t show it. She was nodding at his plan. “That’s definitely one way to go. There’s plenty of good tutorials online, from very beginner all the way to advanced. Though the more advanced you get, it helps to have someone right there with you for troubleshooting.” She walked a little further down the aisle, to a rack of large instruction books. “But if you’d like something a little more cohesive, we’ve got a few good books for beginners, here. Online give you a lot of options, but some find having just one centralized resource helps.”

Eddie looked over the books. It did seem like a good idea to have something like that on hand… though looking at the prices some of the books ran, he’d have to just pick one for now. “That sounds good, actually. Do you have one you’d recommend to someone who could use all the help he can get?”

Sara’s lips twitched, and she eyed the rack. “Wellllll… if you think your pride could stand a little ribbing, I would actually recommend this one.” She picked out a book from lower on the rack. It was very colorful, its cover featuring a couple of girls in their early teens, knitting things out of vibrant yarn. “It’s meant for a younger age group, but it’s actually really good for anyone who’s just starting. The projects are simple, the photos inside are nice and big, and the instructions really clear and simplified. It’s a good starting point for someone who knows nothing about knitting at all.”

“Sounds perfect to me,” he said, taking the book. “Big pictures and simple language sound my speed right now.”

Sara grinned at him, and it looked fully genuine this time. “That’s a good attitude to go into a new hobby with. I wish I’d done that when I was starting out, honestly.”

“Oh yeah? Get yourself tangled up good?”

She rolled her eyes. “Completely. If I hadn’t had a pair of scissors on hand, I would probably still be a part of my very first foray into the world of knitting and crochet. Nothing wrong with just admitting that you’re at the same level as a kid, whatever your age.”

**WE ARE OLDER THAN YOUR ENTIRE SPECIES!**

_Does that mean you **don’t** want the one with the big pictures?_

**…NO, WE WOULD LIKE THE PICTURES, EDDIE.**

_What I thought._

“Alright, then. Book acquired!” He put the instruction book into the basket, feeling oddly pleased with the pick. He tried to imagine V using it at night, curled up in the bed next to him with a pair of needles in their tentacles and yarn trailing away, learning to make things… It took a lot of effort not to grin at the mental image.

He looked back at Sara, turning the goofy smile into one just happy with their progress through the maze of setting up a new hobby. “What would you suggest as a beginner’s pair of needles?”

Sara turned him back towards the rows of options. “Normally they would tell you to start really big and learn on those, since it’ll be easier to see what you’re doing with the yarn that way, but personally…”

Sara walked them through the entire process, setting them up with an entire kit for starting their adventures into knitting. Turned out it took a lot less than the wall would lead him to believe. For starting out it looked like very little more than the needles and yarn were actually needed. That plus the book, a ‘yarn needle,’ which was like a sewing needle but a lot bigger, and a pair of scissors was all they needed. It was when they were picking out the yarn was when V got the most vocal in his head. They argued back and forth with him, wanting to pick up practically every other skein which was on display, regardless of type or ‘weight,’ which referred to the thickness of the yarn.

**BUT EDDIE, THERE’S SO MANY THAT WE LIKE!**

_And we can come back and get more **after** you’ve used up the first couple. We don’t even know if you’re going to **like** this hobby, so we’re not getting three dozen colors, V!_

The symbiote huffed and – Eddie was given the distinct impression – pouted a little at being denied getting every single skein they liked right away. In the end Eddie caved just a little and put three skeins into the basket to try out. One was a bright, variegated red, another one was heather gray, and the last one was a rainbow of gem tones. All of them were super soft, and on the pricier side of things… but the happy purr emanating from Eddie’s chest soothed any personal grumbles Eddie might have had about it.

He walked out of the store with a full basket and a happy symbiote already planning the sorts of things they were going to try making.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can find me on  
> Tumblr: [@ehtarwrites](http://ehtarwrites.tumblr.com/)  
> Twitter: [@ehtarwrites](https://twitter.com/ehtarwrites)  
> Discord: @ehtarwrites#4962 
> 
> If anyone wants to come say hi or chat about nerdy things, hmu! ♥


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey look, a long(ish) chapter! :D

“Hey, Eddie!”

“Oh, Anne! How’s it… how’s it going?”

Eddie felt like he’d been caught a little flatfooted. He hadn’t been expecting Anne to show up on his doorstep. Frankly, he’d thought she would be too busy to make many personal visits, and it wasn’t usually her style to just _turn up_ without warning.

At least it wasn’t her style anymore, since they’d split. It used to be natural and normal for her to turn up anywhere without warning, sometimes with a reason, most of the time not. He’d always thought that it was nice, not knowing if sometime in the day he would see her face pop up, and they could spend a part of their day together when he’d been expecting to have to wait until the evening to see her again.

That had been before the breakup, though. Things were a little different now that they weren’t engaged, and she had Dan.

Annie smiled at him. “I’m doing good, Eddie. Just wanted to stop by and catch up a little. It’s been a while since we talked, and I was in the neighborhood…”

“Yeah, sure, yeah,” Eddie stepped out of the way, beckoning her inside. “C’mon in. It’s a bit of a mess, I wasn’t expecting… yeah.”

“I know, Eddie, I’m not expecting miracles.”

Annie stepped into the apartment, giving the place a quick look around. Eddie did his best to tramp down the feeling that the place _ought_ to be in better shape than it was. Though when he gave the apartment a quick glace, it wasn’t any of his own mess which was the major issue – it was just the apartment itself. It might be better than his old one, but it was still a far cry from the uptown place she had.

It might not be his _mess_ which he had to be embarrassed about, but he still felt a slight twinge over the sort of place he decided to live in. He might not have much pride left, but there were some things it still stung over.

**ANNIE WILL NOT CARE THAT THE APARTMENT IS NOT AS GOOD AS HERS, EDDIE. SHE CARES ABOUT YOU, NOT THE PLACE YOU LIVE.**

A flush sprang up at that, and Eddie smacked his own chest surreptitiously behind Annie’s back. The sound got her attention, and she turned around with a raised eyebrow. He grinned at her.

“So, uh. Would you like something to drink? Or a snack? I could make something for you if you haven’t had lunch yet…” Eddie retreated in the direction of the kitchen without waiting for an answer, feeling the need to keep busy to keep from being too awkward – or at least to have some place where all of the awkward energy could _go_.

Things were less uncomfortable between them than they had been for the first – what had it been? – six months after the breakup, but… they still had a ways to go before they would be back to a good place in the ‘just friends’ spectrum. Honestly, that was probably why she’d come to visit, to keep that progress going. God knew Eddie had been avoiding doing anything which would have helped, just because he couldn’t really handle the awkwardness.

That and he’d been a little busy with adjusting to his new relationship.

“Don’t go out of your way, Eddie!” Annie called from the living room. “Just something to drink will be fine!”

**WE SHOULD MAKE HER A MO-CHA,** V was quick to suggest. Mocha was by far their favorite drink, and they would take any opportunity to have it. And if Eddie was already making one for Annie…

**IT’S NOT JUST THAT, EDDIE,** V said, sounding a little insulted. **MO-CHA IS GOOD, AND WE THINK ANNIE WOULD LIKE IT. _YOU_ MAKE GOOD MO-CHA, AND SHE WILL BE IMPRESSED.**

_You know we’re not really trying to get back together with her, right?_ Eddie flushed harder, but got out what he would need to make a couple of mochas. He’d already had one earlier, and didn’t really need the extra caffeine, but V would metabolize whatever Eddie didn’t use. He’d probably only get a little jittery.

**OF COURSE WE ARE, EDDIE. ANNIE BELONGS WITH US. SHE SHOULD BE WITH US RIGHT NOW, AND WE WILL PROVE TO HER THAT WE ARE THE BEST FOR HER TO BE WITH.**

Eddie sighed, and hoped that this weird obsession V had developed didn’t stem entirely from some subconscious belief _he_ held on some level. He was doing his best to move on and to let Annie do the same… but it was entirely possible that somewhere in his mind he still hoped to get her back.

_Annie belongs wherever she **wants** to belong, V, and right now that’s with Dan. And Dan is a really nice guy. They’re good for each other._

There was a brief, contemplative pause. **WE LIKE DAN,** was the conclusion. **EVEN IF HE DID PUT US IN THE MRI. WE SHOULD HAVE BOTH OF THEM.**

Eddie fumbled one of the mugs, making it clatter to the counter. Thankfully he didn’t drop it entirely and have it shatter on the ground.

“Eddie? You okay in there?”

“Yeah, everything is fine,” he called back. “Just a little clumsy today is all.”

Internally, he said, _I… don’t think that’s something either of them would be willing to do, V._

**HOW WOULD YOU KNOW UNLESS YOU ASKED?** was V’s infallible logic. Eddie chose to ignore it and concentrate on making the chocolatey coffee.

When he came back out of the kitchen, Annie was looking over the collection of planters he had arranged in windowsills and on tabletops as near to the windows – and light – as he could get them. She smiled at him a little confusedly. “Since when do you have a green thumb, Eddie?”

“Oh, yeah, those. That’s, uh… that’s something V wanted to try out.” He’d forgotten that the germinating pots had more or less taken over the little dining table. Once things had sprouted and were established, they had plans to distribute them more evenly around the apartment. Until then, though, they were going to have to stick to the coffee table to have meals. Or drinks. He steered himself that way with the mugs.

“Really?” Annie sounded amused. “I wouldn’t have thought that he’d be the type to go in for gardening.” She sat down next to Eddie – though not too close – on the couch when he put down the mocha.

She looked nice. Though that was barely even an observation, really, Annie always looked nice. But she was dressed down today. Not in her usual ‘lawyer armor’ of a suit and heels, she was wearing her more casual clothes, consisting of a nice skirt and layered tops. It was still pretty cool out even in the afternoons, so the layers made sense.

And she looked happy, too, Eddie thought. Like she was doing alright, and that everything in her life was alright. She looked as though she was comfortable being in his apartment, which… was good, he thought. Not ‘good’ in the sense that V wanted it to mean. He really didn’t think that a return to their old relationship was in the cards, but it was good that Annie didn’t feel nervous being around him – that _she_ didn’t think that he was still the way he had been immediately following the breakup.

“Me, either. But they’ve been full of surprises.”

“Mmm.” She took a sip of the mocha, and her eyes widened very slightly. “Mmm! _You’re_ a full of surprises, Eddie. This is really good!”

**SEE?**

“Thanks,” he said, smiling as he took a sip as well, ignoring the symbiote’s preening under the compliments and confirmation of their prediction.

“How is he doing, by the way? Other than picking up a new hobby?”

“Oh, they’re doing great. Finding a lot of new hobbies, actually, keeping busy whenever I’m not around to keep them entertained.”

“Not around? I thought he had to stay with you all the time or he would die?”

“Around as in awake.”

“Oh, right. Yikes, that must be taking some getting used to. Doesn’t he ever sleep?”

Eddie rolled his eyes. “Not so far as I can tell, no.”

**“WE _CAN_ SLEEP,”** V’s voice suddenly appeared, making Eddie nearly fumble his mug again. **“BUT WE DON’T NEED TO. AND IT’S BORING EITHER WAY.”**

Annie was smiling at the symbiote, looking surprisingly fond at the snake-like appendage which had sprouted from Eddie’s shoulder. “Hi there, Venom. How do you like gardening, then?”

A little wave of pleasure went through V at the attention, and at Annie not reacting with either fear or disgust at seeing them. Eddie sipped at his drink.

**“IT IS SLOW, BUT WE THINK WE LIKE IT. WE ARE HOPING THE FLOWERS WILL ATTRACT BUTTERFLIES.”**

Eddie could see the smile on her face try to grow into a grin, or giggles, uncertain of how serious V was being. “Butterflies?”

“It’s because they’ve been playing this videogame,” Eddie explained. “Where you grow plants and flowers, and sometimes butterflies will come by and eat the flowers.”

**“THERE’S MORE TO IT THAN THAT, EDDIE!”**

“That’s… kind of adorable. I hope you get a lot of butterflies visiting your little garden, Venom.”

**“THANK YOU, ANNIE! WE WILL TAKE PICTURES TO SEND THEM TO YOU!”**

Eddie didn’t think he’d ever seen Annie look quite as charmed as she did right then. And V was quite pleased with themself about it, as well, a feeling along the lines of smugness rippling through them.

**NOT SO IMPOSSIBLE, EDDIE.**

It took some restraint to not grab the little goop snake and physically shove them back inside.

“So,” Annie was saying, looking around the apartment, and Eddie thought there was a more searching quality to it than before. “You’re making mocha, planting a miniature garden – I hope Venom has a greener thumb that you do, Eddie – and… playing video games? Any more big changes since I last saw you?”

V, Eddie discovered, could be talkative when they really wanted to be. **“WE ARE KNITTING! AND COOKING! AND PRACTICING YOGA!”**

Annie’s face went slightly blank at the list, and Eddie felt his face heat up again. Or possibly more. He wasn’t sure that he’d completely recovered yet from the last time.

“I’m gonna be honest,” she said. “I’m not sure which one of those I should be asking about first.”

**“EDDIE DECIDED THAT IT WOULD BE A GOOD IDEA TO STRETCH A LOT TO MAKE OUR BODY FEEL GOOD. WE HAVE BEEN UNDER STRESS WITH TWO SHARING A BODY, AND THE STRETCHING HELPS. PLUS IT SOOTHES US.”**

He was definitely going to have words with V later. Though there probably wasn’t much point. They could _feel_ how embarrassed he was, and he got the distinct impression that they were delighting in the fact.

“Does it…?” Annie looked at Eddie, raising a brow.

He could practically see the question going on behind her eyes. There had been a few times when he’d commented on how little good he thought the practice actually did for anyone who participated, beyond the obvious flexibility benefits. He knew at the time he’d come across as kind of an ass, but Annie had never really said much about it, other than throwing a pillow at his head and telling him to fuck off for a while and leave her in peace to finish out her sets.

He’d been sort of hoping that she wouldn’t find out that _he_ was doing yoga, now.

“Yeah, well… it _does_ seem to help out with some of the… weirder parts about sharing a body with an alien,” he mumbled, sounding lame even to himself. “Plus, you know. I can touch my toes, now, so that’s kinda nice.”

**“AND IT BRINGS US CLOSER. AS EDDIE BECOMES MORE AWARE OF OUR BODY, HE BECOMES MORE AWARE OF US TOGETHER.”**

He choked a little on his drink. “Yeah,” he coughed. “The weirder parts, like I said.”

Annie was back to looking faintly amused, even as Eddie was still trying not to choke on coffee going down the wrong way. Internally he felt V soothe the irritation in his larynx and esophagus, getting his breathing to calm down much more quickly than it would have otherwise, so at least they were showing concern. They were even looking at him, large white eye level with his as he settled down and began to breathe properly.

“I don’t know, Eddie, I think you’ll have to try harder for things which count as ‘weird stuff’ in this case.” She was definitely smirking at them, now. “I’ve seen you climb into a lobster tank and start eating them live. And, you know… helped with biting a guy’s head off that one time.”

V gave a pleased purr at the memory, but thankfully didn’t actually comment on it. God knew what they _would_ have said if they’d chosen to, so it was probably just as well they hadn’t.

“Yeah, I guess that would count as kind of the benchmark for weird, wouldn’t it?”

“A bit. Though I think the knitting is trying to compete for the title, honestly.”

“Ah, yeah. They, uh. They get bored at night, so we decided to try out some hobbies to keep them occupied while I slept. Hobbies _other_ than trolling through message boards on alien conspiracy sites.”

V chuckled at that, their smile stretching so far it practically met itself in the back.

Annie joined in on the laughter. “And just how much of what you’re telling them is true?”

V allowed their tongue to loll. **“ONLY ABOUT… ALL OF IT.”** They laughed again, completely proud of themself and their masterful pranking.

Eddie shook his head, and made a mental note to try and hunt up all of the forum threads V had been haunting while he was sleeping. If they had only been telling the truth when they’d been giving the internet hell, then there was probably plenty in there which Eddie would want to know. Although, no, scratch that. He could just _ask_ the symbiote, and have all the information he could ever want dumped directly into his brain. Always a mildly unsettling experience, but quick and efficient, he had to admit.

Annie was finishing off her mocha, and hummed as she looked down into her empty mug. “Well, it certainly sounds as though you’re both doing really well. I’m glad. I actually, uh…” She glanced to a side, which was enough to catch Eddie’s attention. It wasn’t often that Anne Weying, attorney supreme, was caught without words to express herself. “One of the reasons I stopped by was to check in after your appointment with Dan. He, uh… He told me what the results had been and what he’d recommended. I wanted to see how that was working out for you two?”

Ah. Yeah, that’d be a good reason for Annie to drop in unexpectedly, wouldn’t it?

There was a small coil of curiosity in his mind from V at the thought, but Eddie ignored to for now. 

“Really, Annie?” he asked, grinning at her. “You a lawyer, and you’re getting medical information out of a doctor without a subpoena?”

She rolled her eyes at him. “C’mon, Eddie, don’t be ridiculous. Besides, I doubt the HIPPA laws apply to a literal alien from another world.”

“Don’t be speciest. Just because they’re from another planet doesn’t mean they aren’t due basic rights just like the rest of us.”

“It’s not speciesism,” she pointed out, voice going into her more lawyer tone.  “It’s simply the law. And there’s nothing in there which covers creatures from entirely other solar systems.”

Eddie _tsk_ ed, putting his mug down on the coffee table. “Seems like you’re splitting hairs on the point to get what you want. Bending the rules to suit what you were going to do anyway.”

**I TOLD YOU WE LIKED HER.**

“Only because I care, Eddie. So,” she looked him over, top to bottom, and he realized that she was looking for any sign that he was looking the way he had when the bonding between him and V had still been fresh. Looking for signs of exhaustion, of fever, of anything which might indicate that he was under more stress than could be reasonably expected. Matching up what she could see for herself with what Eddie and V were telling her. “How are you?”

He smiled at her, resisting the urge to reach out and touch her hand. “We’re doing good, Annie. Better than good, actually. The list Dan gave us has been really helpful. We’ve been following it pretty close and it looks like it’s going to work as a mostly-substitute for, uh. Head eating.”

Her intense stare didn’t let up for a few more seconds, but then she nodded. “Mostly is better than nothing. And it’s not been too difficult to adjust to for either of you?”

**“THE FOOD WE EAT NOW DOESN’T SCREAM OR FIGHT BACK,”** V grumbled. **“BUT IT FILLS US, AND WE DON’T FEEL THE NEED TO HUNT OR STARVE. AND EDDIE’S ORGANS REMAIN WHOLE,”** they added quickly, probably remembering just how upset she had been when they’d found out that Eddie’s heart had been ‘atrophying’ in the early days.

To Annie’s credit, she managed to not look ill at the complaint that their food wasn’t shrieking in terror while they were still chewing. It looked like it was a near thing, though. “Well, that’s… good.”

Eddie reached out to V with the intention of pushing him down a little, a little reminder that yes, even with Annie they should probably tone it down a little bit. Instead he ended up absently stroking them, so they leaned into his hand.

“It’s not been so bad, honestly. The supplements on top of the change in food seems to have done the trick. And it’s been kind of fun finding new places to eat, hunting up recipes to try. A lot of them are super easy, even I haven’t screwed them up. …Not many, anyway.”

In Eddie’s hand, V perked up suddenly. **“ANNIE! WOULD YOU LIKE TO TRY SOMETHING WE HAVE MADE? WE HELPED EDDIE TO MAKE IT, SO IT IS NOT DISGUSTING.”**

“Hey-!”

Annie snorted, the traitor, and nodded. “Of course, I’d love to try anything you two have made. So long as it’s not raw meat.”

“No meat at all,” Eddie said, knowing exactly which of the Tupperware boxes in the fridge V wanted to share with her. “For taking care of the nutritional needs of a through and through predator, I think my meat consumption has gone _down_ overall.”

And wouldn’t that be a lovely irony, if after he and V became well and truly bonded, they became vegetarian and still managed to function just fine?

Gathering up the mugs, he led the way to the kitchen, Annie following close behind. As soon as they got within sight of the fridge, V was extending out and opening it, grabbing the Tupperware and fishing into the crisper drawers for the little baggie of vegetables Eddie kept in there for quick grabbing when they were hungry. It looked like one of the ones which was primarily celery. By the time Eddie and Annie had caught up with them, the Tupperware was open, revealing a dark and very pungent paste. For the first time, Annie actually looked a little hesitant.

“Okay… I give. What is it?”

**“CHOCOLATE HUMMUS!”** V beamed, incredibly proud.

They might well be, at that. Eddie hadn’t known that such a thing as ‘chocolate hummus’ even existed, but they’d done a little research on their own – apparently trying to find a way to sneak chocolate into _everything_ they ate – and found a really simple recipe for the stuff.

And he had had the first initial reaction to the very idea which Annie seemed to also be having just now.

“Chocolate… _hummus?_ ”

“It’s not as bad as it sounds, I promise.” He reached for the baggie of vegetables and picked out one of the rare carrots, then used it to scoop out a dollop of the thick stuff. Annie still looked vaguely disgusted and uncertain as he shoved it into his mouth and began chewing, but it really wasn’t that bad. A little strange, maybe, with the mix of chickpeas and chocolate. Unfamiliar, certainly, though Eddie was already getting used to it. And it was more or less stuffed with that chemical V needed so much of. Chickpeas had rated high on Dan’s list, and even just regular old hummus was made of them.

Thankfully, he _liked_ hummus.

Watching him chew, as though he would change his mind and spit it all out in a sudden realization of just how much he _didn’t_ like it, Annie approached the counter and the food slowly. V already had about five pieces of vegetable in various tentacles and was scooping hummus and shoving them into their maw as quickly as possible. That, even more than Eddie’s demonstration of just how safe the concoction was for humans, seemed to reassure her that it was fine.

She picked out a piece of celery and tried a bite.

It was a little hard to tell which of them, him or V, experienced the most smug pleasure at Annie’s surprised face, quickly followed by her picking up a second piece of celery and going in for more.

It was probably pretty evenly split between them, to be honest.

“Pretty good, huh?” Eddie asked as she started to reach for her third piece.

She stopped in mid-grab, and covered her mouth. “Yes, it is! If I’d known you could make things like this, Eddie, I would have made you cook more often!”

**“HE COULDN’T BEFORE,”** V said, definitely smug. **“IT IS BECAUSE WE ARE HERE THAT HE CAN COOK SO WELL.”**

Eddie rolled his eyes. “Oh, yeah, I’m sure that the symbiote race, going from planet to planet and eating people raw, were all real experts on cooking. Especially cooking which involves absolutely zero meat.”

**“MORE THAN YOU.”**

“What?”

**“HOW GOOD WERE YOU AT COOKING BEFORE I CAME?”**

“That’s not the poi—“

**“ANNIE?”** They swung their head around to tilt at Annie inquisitively. **“HOW GOOD WAS EDDIE AT COOKING _BEFORE_ WE CAME AND BONDED WITH HIM?”**

“Not very,” Annie admitted, obviously stifling another laugh, her eyes dancing.

V swung back rough to him again. **“SEE? YOU COOK MUCH BETTER WITH US, SO IT MUST BE _BECAUSE_ OF US THAT YOU CAN COOK SO MUCH BETTER.”**

Eddie gaped at them, and then turned to Annie as well. “You’re seriously going to agree with that?”

Annie shrugged. “The logic seems sound enough to me, Eddie. I think he’s got you over a barrel, here.”

He threw up his hands, defeated and disgusted. “I see how it is. Ganged up on by the ones I care about the most. Excellent. You two let me know once you’re done assassinating my character, won’t you?”

It earned him chuckles from both of them, which did very little to change his opinion on what was going on with his ex and his… V. It was just a touch disturbing, truth be told. But at the same time…

Eddie looked round the kitchen. It was a weird scene, and no mistake. Him, Annie, and  an alien creature which lived in his body all standing around and munching on chocolate hummus, all laughing and smiling together…

His life had gotten very weird. But at the same time, it was getting kind of… comfortable.

He could live with weird and comfortable.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which ~~the author~~ the symbiote is totally angling for a poly relationship. ♥
> 
> \---
> 
> You can find me on  
> Tumblr: [@ehtarwrites](http://ehtarwrites.tumblr.com/)  
> Twitter: [@ehtarwrites](https://twitter.com/ehtarwrites)  
> Discord: @ehtarwrites#4962 
> 
> If anyone wants to come say hi or chat about nerdy things, hmu! ♥


	12. Chapter 12

For a creature who – supposedly – had already lived something like six hundred _million_ years, V could be incredibly impatient. That had more or less been the whole reason why they had needed to hunt up hobbies – something to keep them busy while Eddie was unable to be entertaining. If V had possessed the kind of patience which he would have normally assumed came from having lived that long, there would have been no issue at all for Eddie sleeping through the night, or for going a few hours every day where he couldn’t be distracted from his work.

But symbiotes were far from the sort of thing which popular sci-fi had built nearly immortal beings to be. They weren’t endlessly patient, wise in the sort of way which ‘aged aliens’ were usually assumed to be, and they certainly didn’t have a natural predilection for benevolence… Although that last one was slowly improving in V’s case. They might not be the ultimate answer to cruelty in the universe, but V wasn’t the same symbiote who had crashed to Earth nearly a year before. They didn’t necessarily see every single moving thing on the planet as food.

And it wasn’t all because they’d changed up their diet, because V didn’t _need_ to view everything and everyone as a potential meal on legs. Eddie liked to think, and was fairly certain he was right, that the shift in attitude had come before that, before their visit to Dan.

He liked to think that he was having an effect on V, that they were picking up enough from him to be influenced for the better. Or at least for the less predatory.

But all of that didn’t make them any less impatient.

“V, you know that they aren’t going to grow any faster if you just keep _staring_ at them all day, right?”

V only acknowledged the comment with a huff.

They’d been going through their normal routine for the day, this day involving more work at home than going out for any reason, so Eddie had been working on writing up some articles. Normally that would mean that V would be spending _their_ afternoon playing Viva Piñata. They still hadn’t booted up either of the other two games on their shelf for more than a few minutes.

They still hadn’t tired of the colorful gardening and… ranch simulator, so their showing very little interest in the other games wasn’t an issue yet. From what Eddie had been able to gather from the snippets he caught, V was trying to attract and catch the game’s answer to a unicorn.

Eddie was waiting for questions any day now regarding unicorns.

But today they had apparently decided that they didn’t want to play, and had turned their attention to the many planters and pots they had lined up, all soaking up as much sunlight as they could.

And the seeds they had planted _had_ begun to sprout. There were tiny little leaves pushing up through the soil, each little pair of leaves slightly different. Eddie was actually quite impressed that anything had come up at all. Not that he thought they were doing anything _wrong_ in their caring for the… well, the dirt at this point. But Annie hadn’t been wrong when she said that Eddie _did not_ have a green thumb. His was a little bit like the touch of death for plants, so the fact that there was _anything_ alive in the planters was kind of amazing.

But V was still impatient, and wanted their garden to be a full and riotous mess of green and blooms.

At the moment, they were draped rather dramatically across the back of the sofa, their chin barely an inch from the lip of one of the planters on the table behind them. From what Eddie could tell, they were staring at the soil in the planter intently, as though they could draw the plants up out of sheer force of will.

“Hey, Sulky. What was that you were telling me a while back about glaring being rude? Even to plants.”

V huffed again, making a little of the dry soil stir and the little seedlings sway. **“I REMEMBER, EDDIE. BUT THE _PLANTS_ ARE BEING RUDE!”**

“The plants?”

**“YES!”**

“By not growing fast enough for you?”

V rose up enough to twist round and look at him, the glare being leveled on him instead of the seedlings. **“THE TIMES LISTED ON ALL OF THE SITES AND ON THE PACKETS ALL HAVE THIS HAPPENING MUCH FASTER, EDDIE! THEY ARE TAKING TOO LONG TO GROW, AND THEY ARE DOING IT ON PURPOSE!”**

Eddie had to bite his lips. Yeah, symbiotes were definitely not the wise and ancient kind of aliens. They were much closer to the pouting, tantrum throwing kind. At least V was.

“I really don’t think that the plants are taking extra long to grow up big just because they know that you’re waiting for them, V. I’m pretty sure it’s just because we’ve got north facing windows and they aren’t getting the ideal amount of sun. Those estimates are for folks who have got things like porches and can give the seedlings full sun part of the day.”

V growled a little, and glared at the plants again.

Eddie wondered if this was going to be the death of this particular interest already. If V’s impatience was going to kill it before they’d even had the chance to really get into it. He hoped not, honestly. The planters and soil hadn’t been super expensive, but it was still an investment… and they hadn’t been light, either. Although that last point was pretty much moot, since V had taken to snaking tentacles down his arms whenever he was carrying armloads of groceries and helping him to carry. That had actually taken him some time to figure out that V was doing. At first he’d just thought that the bags weren’t as heavy as he remembered, or maybe having a symbiote was just making _him_ stronger… but no. V had been adding their strength to his much more directly than he’d thought.

**“EDDIE. EDDIE, YOU SHOULD SING.”**

He blinked. “What now?”

**“TO THE PLANTS!”** V clarified. It was a nice thought, but ‘sing to the plants’ still seemed like it needed more clarification.

“Why would I sing to the _plants_ , V? They don’t have ears, they don’t need lullabies.”

**“WE DID MORE RESEARCH. WE FOUND THAT PLANTS WILL GROW BETTER, STRONGER, AND _FASTER_ WHEN THERE IS MUSIC OR SINGING.”** A tentacle came up and poked him lightly in the middle of his chest. **“ _YOU_ SING. YOU CAN SING TO THE PLANTS, AND THEY WILL GROW FASTER!”**

Eddie rubbed at the place where V had poked him, raising an eyebrow at the symbiote. It was still a little hard to read their facial expressions, but the feelings of excitement and hope coming from them was clear enough. They liked the idea that they’d had and thought that it would work. And even if it didn’t work, they liked the idea of Eddie singing just for its own sake.

He narrowed his eyes at the symbiote. “That sounds like a lot of hippie babble, V. Where on earth have you been looking this stuff up?”

**“THE INTERNET.”**

“Oh good, something sensible.”

**“EDDIE!”**

“What?” He looked up from where he’d pinched the bridge of his nose.

V was staring at him still. Rather than finding his other’s eyes narrowed in a glare, he found that V was looking at him with something like a pleading expression. Which was impressive, given the facial features they had to work with.

**“PLEASE, WILL YOU SING TO THEM?”**

It was hard to think of V’s voice as being anything other than terrifying, especially during the early days of their bonding. But Eddie had learned throughout the weeks and months since things had calmed down, and V had a lot more different tones than the ones they used when they were _trying_ to be terrifying. They could be teasing, or concerned, or even comforting. He wouldn’t have thought it possible at all in the early days, but there were times when just V’s voice was enough to soothe him.

That was the kind of voice they were using now, something which was soft and gentle, imploring.

**“I WOULD LIKE IT IF YOU SANG. AND YOU LIKE TO SING, TOO. PLEASE?”**

Eddie glared at them for a second. He didn’t know if it was something symbiotes did on their own, or if V had picked it up from him and the copious amounts of videos they had been watching at night, but they had gotten rather good at the emotional manipulation. At least the really obvious kind – the kind which was super easy to see through and to deflate.

The kind which Eddie still fell for, every single time.

It was probably a good thing that Annie hadn’t been the type to pull this kind of thing, or he would have been super whipped.

With a sigh, Eddie made sure that all of his documents were saved and closed the laptop. He felt the happy excitement coming from V as they realized Eddie intended to sing as requested, and did his best to push his own feeling of exasperated amusement right back at them.

He’d gotten more and more used to singing in general again, since every time they took a shower, V insisted that he at least hum a tune. As they put it, it helped to maximize Their enjoyment of the ritual. Eddie didn’t argue with it much more that a playful complaint or two. It hadn’t taken too long to get used to singing in the shower stall, not with V being present the entire time and feeding him with their pleasure to hear and feel him sing.

How awkward could he feel with a constant feedback loop of happiness and pride being fed into him?

But singing to plants still seemed a little weird.

He stood up. That felt a little weird, too, but singing was easier when he was standing up. He cleared his throat and took a breath, and did his best to not pay attention to himself as he began to sing a low song to… a lot of dirt and a few little seedlings. Because the alien living inside him asked him to so nicely.

As he sang, he felt the pleasure beginning to coil off of V. They really did enjoy it when he sang, and Eddie sometimes wondered if they had encountered much in the way of music before coming to Earth. Certainly they had never been in a person long enough to experience a human singing from the inside the way they were with Eddie, but surely there had to be music somewhere out there? If there were aliens – and there were a lot of them from the sound of things – then there _had_ to be music somewhere.

It was different singing outside the shower. The acoustics were completely different, and there was now sound of water, or the little sounds of soap and scrubbing softening his own voice or distracting him from it.

There was also nothing to distract him from the feelings he was picking up from V. That felt different outside of the shower, as well. V really did enjoy his singing, he realized, but not just because of what he _sounded_ like. When Eddie sang, a vibration worked through his chest which felt… nice to the symbiote. It wasn’t something which Eddie had ever considered, how his singing might be physically affecting V… It seemed kind of silly not to have thought of that earlier.

But the singing was soothing to V because of that, and because they got to listen to Eddie’s voice. It was a little like the yoga, Eddie realized. It was something which made Eddie more aware of himself, and because of that clarity and introspection, it made him more aware of Them, and it brought Them a little bit closer together. And that, even if nothing else at all could be taken into consideration, was enough to make V happy, a little purring puddle nestled in his chest cavity.

Eddie smiled to himself, and determined that he was going to have to start singing outside of the shower a little more. If something so simple could make V feel _this_ good, then where was the harm in doing it?

Besides… Maybe it would help the plants to grow a little bigger, stronger, and faster?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can find me on  
> Tumblr: [@ehtarwrites](http://ehtarwrites.tumblr.com/)  
> Twitter: [@ehtarwrites](https://twitter.com/ehtarwrites)  
> Discord: @ehtarwrites#4962 
> 
> If anyone wants to come say hi or chat about nerdy things, hmu! ♥


	13. Chapter 13

V took to the knitting better than Eddie had thought they would. During the night, they’d learned all of the basics in the instruction book, and they now had several simple but colorful items which were the symbiote’s first attempts at the craft. A scarf, of course, but also a washcloth – which looked like an excuse to try out different textures – a knitted ball, a cup cozy, a little fish toy meant for a cat – Eddie was quick to say no to the suggestion he felt coming when V showed him that one – a small throw blanket, and one of the longest stocking caps Eddie had ever seen.

V made quick progress, both in skill and in their yarn supply. But they had literally hours with nothing else to do, so it wasn’t too surprising that V would chew through it pretty quickly.

It meant that Eddie ended up back at the craft store fairly regularly, picking up more yarn, different sized needles, and pattern books. He actually became something of a familiar face at the store, where the employees – and not just Sara – got to know him by the piles of skeins he would get. They took to asking him about ‘his’ latest projects and asking him to bring them in so they could see his progress. V absolutely _preened_ under the attention, and insisted that Eddie bring in their best things to show off.

It only encouraged them – them as in V and them as in the craft store employees. The attention and surprised delight at how good V’s projects were turning out inspired V to try harder and more complex patterns, and Eddie’s reflected enthusiasm only encouraged the employees to… well, _encourage_. They suggested projects, they suggested in-store classes and local groups which met up to knit and craft (and drink) together – they even went so far as to point out other types of crafts which Eddie might like to try out, since knitting seemed to be going so well.

Eddie might have mentally cussed them out for that last bit.

V took on every single one of their suggestions. Crochet was the first one, since it seemed a natural counterpart to the knitting. But there was also miniature knitting, which was knitting but with _string_ , latch hooking, tatting, plastic canvas – which was only a stepping stone to cross stitching and embroidery…

V’s hours spent on their own while Eddie slept were being steadily filled up with plenty to do, and their apartment was steadily being filled up with supplies and the results of V’s work. Eddie would have been more upset about it, except that V was so happy to have something to do. They genuinely seemed to enjoy being creative and expressive. And Eddie couldn’t really say that what V was coming up with was ever _bad_. The quality of their stuff was pretty damned good, even he could tell that…

The only real problems emerged when it came to funding V’s new habit, and what to do with all of their finished projects. It didn’t feel right to just toss them out, but a lot of the things V made they were never going to actually _use_.

The solution to both problems came when one of the store employees, like an angel from heaven, asked him if he’d ever considered selling the things he was making.

Eddie blinked, not sure he’d heard that correctly. “Sell them? What, you think people would buy these sorts of things?”

Emma, who was middle-aged and usually wearing a smile which said that she was thinking of ways to get into trouble, gave him a look. She held up the latest of V’s projects he had brought in to show off to the gang at the store. It was a sweater which V had informed him was a cable knit. “Honey, are you kidding me? I know people who would give you an _arm_ for something like this made just for them. Do you know how hard it is to find anyone who’s willing to sit down and just _make_ things like this which aren’t already meant for a niece or a nephew? And at the rate you’re going, you could make a pretty penny selling them on.”

At the phrase ‘give you an arm,’ V perked up considerably, and Eddie had to push them back down a bit. _Turn of phrase, love._

“That would actually be really helpful,” Eddie said, laughing a little. “If I could sell them on, then it might help fund the hobby, at least.”

Emma snorted. “More than that, honey. You might have yourself a little side business if you work it right.”

“That right?”

**THAT COULD BE GOOD. IF WE HAD MONEY, WE COULD BUY ALL OF THE CHOCOLATE WE WANTED. OH! WE COULD GET A BETTER APARTMENT, EDDIE!**

He hid his frown for Emma’s sake. _Why do you care about the kind of apartment we have, V? Better how?_

**BIGGER,** they said firmly. **MORE ROOM FOR EDDIE TO FEEL GOOD. AND BETTER WINDOWS.**

The snort of laughter was a little harder to hide than the frown. “You think you could help set me up with that, Emma?”

“As an employee, it’s generally frowned on if I conduct any business with customers which falls outside the purview of the company.” Her professional mask cracked, and she gave him a smirk. “But if you drop by to see me after closing time, handsome, I’m pretty sure we can get something worked out.”

Eddie laughed aloud at that, getting a couple of other customers to glance over curiously. “You got it, Em. I’ll even buy you a drink if you like.”

“Such a gentleman,” she commented, handing the sweater back again. “Buying drinks, knitting sweaters, where on earth have you been hiding yourself all this time, boyo?”

“Outer space,” Eddie replied without thinking, and added a wink.

It got him a laugh. Emma went back to work, and Eddie went back to hunting up the supplies they were going to need to get them through another week of late night knitting. It wasn’t really fair that on top of being able to hyper focus on his projects for hours at a time, V also had the advantage of have _a few_ sets of hands to help get them through tons of work in a short amount of time.

_So you want to try out being an entrepreneur, now? Dabble in the human construct of capitalism?_

**IT IS NOT A SOLELY HUMAN THING, EDDIE. THERE ARE OTHERS WHO HAVE IT AS WELL. BUT WE HAVE NEVER TRIED,** they admitted, sounding just a little uncertain. **BUT IT WOULD BE GOOD TO HAVE MONEY FOR OUR PROJECTS. THEN YOU WOULD NOT HAVE TO WORK SO HARD TO KEEP BUYING MORE YARN.** They paused for a second. **MAYBE YOU COULD WORK LESS ALL THE TIME, IF WE GET ENOUGH MONEY.**

Eddie smiled, looking over the shelves. He’d gotten pretty good at knowing what he was looking at, at least, even if he didn’t do any of the actually crafting himself.

_You saying you want to help support us, V?_

**OF COURSE.**

It made Eddie pause, surprised.

**WE ARE A PART OF YOUR LIFE, EDDIE. WE ARE _WE_ , AND IT IS NOT FAIR THAT WE TAKE WITHOUT GIVING BACK. YOU GIVE MUCH TO US, AND WE TRY TO GIVE BACK. WE WATCH YOUR BODY, KEEP IT HEALED, KEEP YOU HEALTHY… BUT THERE IS MORE WE COULD DO.**

**… WE DO NOT WANT TO BE A PARASITE.**

Eddie stopped breathing for a second. The words themselves had been thought so very quietly, but the feeling which had accompanied them nearly made Eddie shake where he stood.

V had always hated that word, ‘parasite.’ It implied a lot which V actively fought against. That they were useless, or weak, or that they couldn’t achieve anything unless it was built on the back of someone else. That they were nothing but destructive – a force which took and took and, yeah, gave nothing back.

It made Eddie wonder on more than one occasion how V had been perceived among their own kind. It didn’t seem like any of the rest of them would have cared much about being considered a parasite – certainly Riot wouldn’t have. Except for the weak part, that probably would have rankled. But everything else seemed to not only be their MO, but things which they took active delight in. Eating everything in their path and leaving nothing behind? Yeah, that had looked like their entire plan, really.

How, then, had V ended up being a part of their group? Had they been considered a sort of black sheep or something? V had said that they were thought of as ‘a bit of a loser.’ Had that been why?

V had told him that _he_ was the reason they had decided to turn against Riot and protect the planet. But, as nice as it was to think that he had been _the_ factor which caused the change, he was pretty sure he was just the last little push they’d needed to go over an edge they’d already been heading towards.

_You do give back, V,_ he thought quietly, looking at the rows of skeins without actually seeing them. _More than you might think. I don’t think you realize just how much having you with me really means to me. You give back just be being here._

V didn’t answer verbally, but warmth emanated from the place in Eddie’s chest where V liked to nest most of the time. Warmth and contentment, tinged with just a little bit of embarrassment.

Smiling, Eddie rubbed at the place just over his sternum, a little pantomime of giving the symbiote an affectionate pet.

Eddie turned his attention back to the shelves, but was only able to look for about a minute before V’s voice came back again, sounding oddly hesitant, even in their thoughts.

**EDDIE?**

_Yeah, V?_

**WE… WE ARE HAPPY, EDDIE. WITH YOU. HAPPIER THAN WE HAVE EVER BEEN ANYWHERE ELSE.**

Something brushed across Eddie’s palm, and he jumped. Looking down, he saw V’s hand, manifesting just enough to take hold of his and squeeze. **WE ARE HAPPY WITH YOU, EDDIE. THANK YOU FOR LETTING US STAY. FOR LETTING US BE _US_.**

_Y-yeah… no problem, V. I’m… I’m happy with you, too._ He returned the squeeze, tracing a thumb over the smooth back. _In fact, I… I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy before, either. Not- not the same **way** I’ve been happy with you. Just sort of… content, you know? Comfortable all the time. _

**HOME,** came the rumbling thought, loaded with almost too much meaning for Eddie to process.

Home. Yes. A concept which Eddie had always thought of as so foreign, so strange that it had almost seemed like a myth – one of those impossible things which everyone believed and aspired to achieve, but which no one really ever got to experience. A pipedream, a carrot on a stick to keep people moving forward, trying to catch the shadows they were told were real.

With Annie he’d thought that he’d at least found something so close to what he thought of as ‘home’ that any difference didn’t really matter. For a while, he’d just allowed himself to believe that it really _was_ real.

_“Home is where you are.”_

Echoes of that same feeling came from V, vibrating through the word. V had travelled through the cold expanses of space, consuming as they had gone, their own home world long lost behind them, and not even fitting in with those of their kind who they were surrounded by.

‘Home’ was an even stranger, more mythologized concept for them than it was for him… and yet they felt that way with him?

Eddie’s eyes prickled treacherously in the middle of the store, and he squeezed the hand in his even harder.

_Home,_ he agreed.

**YOU ARE HOME, EDDIE.**

When they walked out of the store that day, Eddie was fairly certain that they did so while leaving behind a very strong impression that the newbie dude crafter who had been coming in so regularly got unreasonably emotional over alpaca wool.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can find me on  
> Tumblr: [@ehtarwrites](http://ehtarwrites.tumblr.com/)  
> Twitter: [@ehtarwrites](https://twitter.com/ehtarwrites)  
> Discord: @ehtarwrites#4962 
> 
> If anyone wants to come say hi or chat about nerdy things, hmu! ♥


	14. Chapter 14

**“EDDIE, LOOK! WE MADE SOMETHING FOR OUR POTS!”**

Groaning, Eddie dragged himself up into consciousness. It had been a little while since the last time V had been so excited about a new project that they were actively _pulling_ him out of sleep to show off their efforts.

“Whazzat…?” He yawned, ruining the little progress he’d made in actually getting his eyes to open all the way. How early _was_ it, anyway?

**“WE LEARNED HOW TO BRAID, EDDIE!”**

Braid…? Curiosity helped to get him to open his eyes more, though for the first minute he could only stare blankly, not quite able to figure out what it was he was looking at. It looked… mostly like a mass of string without any real shape to it. Some of it _was_ braided, though, yes.

“That’s… that’s great, V. …what is it?”

**“IT IS MACRAMÉ!”** V sounded completely pleased with themself. Thankfully they took a couple of tentacles and spread out the project so that Eddie could actually see what was happening beyond ‘something made of string.’

**“YOU SEE, EDDIE? THE POT GOES IN LIKE THIS, AND THE BRAIDS WILL CRADLE IT IN PLACE. AND THEN WE ATTACH A HOOK TO THE END HERE,”** they tugged at the very top of the project, **“AND INSTALL A HOOK IN THE CEILING, AND THEN THE POTS CAN HANG!”** V grinned widely, pleased with themself. **“WE CAN HAVE OUR TABLES BACK SOON, EDDIE!”**

Eddie smiled. There was no real way to stay very annoyed with the amount of happy pride rolling off of V. “That’s awesome, V. It looks really nice.”

It did, too. When V said that they had learned how to braid, that was sort of underselling the complex weaving they’d done to make the thick cords and netting meant to hold heavy planters securely. Technically _Eddie_ could braid, but there was no way he would have been able to make what V was holding up for his inspection. He wasn’t even sure he could see where the project had been started, it was all woven together so well.

**“THANK YOU!”** The grin spread so wide it made V’s eyes narrow to slits.

Something about the image presented, and the way he could _feel_ just how happy and proud V was, made Eddie’s chest ache. Not a bad sort of ache, but the sort which had him grin just as wide, the sort which made him want to just laugh and keep on laughing for a good long while.

He settled for a chuckle, and stretched under the blankets.

**“YOU ARE HAPPY THIS MORNING, EDDIE.”**

He opened his eyes, and found V was hovering close to his face, looking at him curiously.

**“WHY ARE YOU SO HAPPY TODAY? DO YOU LIKE THE POT HOLDER THAT MUCH?”**

Eddie chuckled. He could remember, even a few months ago, when having V be right up in his face like they were would have unsettled him. Now… now it was just sort of charming, the way they got so close, like they were trying to see every little flicker of expression which ran across his face. Like they were trying to take in everything about him, lest they miss something important.

Eddie shrugged, still smiling. “I dunno. It’s just a good morning, V. I’m glad to be here, and glad that you’re here, too.”

Curiosity flickered through the bond as V tilted their head. Before they could ask further questions, Eddie stroked a hand over their head and down their slender back. He didn’t think he would ever get fully used to the texture of V’s body, and rather hoped he wouldn’t. He’d rather never take it for granted that he got to touch something so silken and soft, something so malleable and changeable and _strong_ every day.

V leaned into the touch, as they always did, contentment purring through the bond until even Eddie felt a little bit like a cat, rumbling away in a patch of sun.

He gave them one last little scratch and a pat. “C’mon. Let’s get the day started, and we’ll see how well your project works, yeah?”

**“YES!”**

Eddie pulled himself out of bed – V helping slightly with a few tentacles pushing against the mattress – and they got started on their by-now regular routine.

Despite how eager V was to try out their new thing, they were surprisingly insistent that they go through the entire morning routine first. He tried to explain that it would only take a few minutes to hang a macramé pot holder, and then they could get right into their usual morning, but V was adamant. They were going to do their morning the way they always did.

Eddie shrugged, and went with it. If V was alright with the wait, that was fine.

So they went, beginning with the yoga sets. Eddie was practiced enough now that he could touch the floor without any problems, and his balance had gotten good enough that V didn’t _need_ to help him out with stabilizing tentacles. As they worked through the poses, both of their minds went quiet, and it was easier to feel V swirling around inside, weaving through muscles and curling around bone – always with him, always a part of him.

Then the shower, with V taking care of his hair with the shampoo and conditioner they had insisted would be better for his hair and scalp than the stuff he normally got. Eddie didn’t know when they’d gone and researched that, but it _did_ seem to be helping, so he wasn’t going to complain. As V worked the soaps through, they were careful to shield his face, keeping anything from running into his eyes, no matter how he bent or turned into the water. Eddie softly sang a tune he’d heard on the radio the day before.

After they were clean and dry, they headed to the kitchen. Eddie got out one of the supplements and tossed it into the air for V to catch, which they did, snapping it out of the air with ease.

“I think I’m feeling the eggs and bacon route this morning, how about you?”

**“AND MOCHA!”** V added to the list.

“Well, of course. What’s a meal without chocolate these days?”

**“BORING.”**

Eddie laughed, and made them breakfast. To the eggs he added a small portion of the firm tofu they had in the fridge.

It was a lot easier to add things like tofu to their diet and actually keep it there once Eddie realized that it _really_ wasn’t a case of replacing anything, but _adding_ to it. Tofu for eggs didn’t mean that the eggs had to be taken out, just that some tofu in there boosted the nutrition content they wanted. It might be hard to make tofu feel and taste exactly like eggs by itself, but just adding some into egg? It was barely noticeable if it was chopped up small.

There wasn’t anything much to plan for that day. It was a rare day off for Eddie, so instead of going over all of the tasks they would need to do for _his_ job…

“How’re your commissions coming along?”

**“ALMOST DONE WITH THEM ALL, EDDIE.”**

“What, _already?_ ”

V was set up with their own plate of eggs, tofu and bacon, and their own mug of mocha as well. They’d found [a mug](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-V28AaW2xGOY/VJ4bP1YIulI/AAAAAAAAA6w/gArJsYqb36k/s1600/greenwhiteorange.jpg) at a thrift shop one day which looked like a home spun mug with a set of eyeballs and teeth added around to the outside, making the whole thing look a bit like a stoned goblin. V had absolutely fallen in love with the thing, and now insisted on using it every morning. It was the one ‘utensil’ which they ever bothered with. Fork and spoons for eating were for boring losers like Eddie, who didn’t want to use his fingers to eat his eggs.

V looked up from their plate, where they were chomping through the mostly raw bacon with zeal. **“YES. NONE OF THEM WERE VERY BIG OR COMPLICATED. WE CAN FINISH IN THE NEXT TWO NIGHTS AND GIVE THEM TO THEIR PEOPLE.”**

Eddie shook his head slightly. ‘Not very big or complicated’ in V’s view included things like made to measure sweaters and full sized blankets. They’d gotten other orders in the past which might have made sweaters and blankets seem a little simple – the bulk order of socks, for instance, had proven to be more of a task than either of them had originally thought it was going to be. Still…

“You’re going to have to start slowing down a little, I think. I’m already getting odd looks whenever I come back with an order which should have taken a week or two after only three days.”

**“BUT THAT WOULD MEAN THAT OUR COMMISSIONS WOULD SLOW DOWN,”** V pointed out. **“AND PEOPLE LIKE THAT WE CAN GET THEIR ORDERS DONE SO QUICKLY. CHRISTINE SAID IT WAS A LITTLE MIRACULOUS HOW QUICKLY WE WERE ABLE TO GET THE ORDER FOR HER GRANDCHILDREN COMPLETED.”** The little alien beamed at the memory.

Ever since they’d broken into the business of commissioned crafting, the compliments on V’s work had only increased, every commissioner they had delighted with every aspect of V’s work – the speed, the quality, the strength of the stitches… And they were always so surprised, though they tried not to show it, that such good work came from someone who looked like Eddie.

He wasn’t sure if they would be more or less surprised to find out that their beautiful projects were being completed by an alien from outer space, rather than a human male.

Considering the absolute absence Eddie had observed of any other males in any of the groups or classes he’d attended, he was willing to bet that the likelihood of either case would be about even.

“Maybe, but it’s also a little weird that they’re getting their orders back to them so quickly,” Eddie pointed out. “It’s _miraculous_ because it shouldn’t be possible. Especially not for a guy who supposedly only started learning how to do all of this less than a year ago.”

**“ARE YOU WORRIED THAT PEOPLE WILL GET SUSPICIOUS, EDDIE?”**

He thought about it, then shrugged. “Yeah, I guess a little bit.”

**“SUSPICIOUS OF _WHAT?_ ”**

Which was a fairly good point, actually. People might look at the rate things were being knitted, crocheted, or stitched and wonder at it, but what was actually likely to come of it? It’s not like ‘alien’ was one of the first things that came to mind as a reason for how a crafter was getting their projects done so quickly.

V turned back to their breakfast. **“FINISHING ONE PROJECT MEANS STARTING ON THE NEXT ONE. WE WANTED TO TRY THE CROCHETED DOLLS FOR TRESSA. …AND GOING SLOWER WOULD MEAN FEWER COMMISSIONS AND LESS MONEY FOR CHOCOLATE.”**

Eddie snorted. “You’ve gotten quite mercenary in your new business, you know that? I think this planet has thoroughly corrupted you, V.”

**“MAYBE. BUT WE DON’T MIND. IT’S A NICE CORRUPTION. ONE WHICH MAKES US CREATE, NOT DESTROY.”**

It was possibly the nicest thing Eddie had heard about the effect his planet and species could have, collectively, on anyone. Hiding his smile behind his mug, Eddie drank his mocha, and working through his own very crispy bacon while V went through what was left of his current orders. It would only be a matter of time before they would have to get set up with an online store of some sort, Eddie considered. The local groups were great for picking up work, but even in a city, at the rate V was going, they were going to tap out the market before too long. They’d have to extend their reach if they wanted to keep this up. And considering just how happy they seemed in their work, it _would_ be something they wanted to keep going.

Once breakfast was done and the dishes washed, they finally went about the project of hanging their first pot using V’s macramé net.

It _was_ a little more involved than Eddie had thought it would be. He had to dig up hooks out of a nearly forgotten tool kit, and then pick out a good place for the plant to hang – somewhere where Eddie wouldn’t be running into it constantly and where the plant itself would still be getting plenty of light. Once the perfect place was picked out, they then had to adjust that slightly, making sure that wherever the ceiling hook was put, there was something solid they were screwing _into_. The pots might not be big, but they _were_ full of dirt, and sometimes it was be damp dirt, and that was far from a light load.

Once the spot was figured out, V took over on getting the hook installed – seeing as how _they_ didn’t need to dig out a stool to stand on to reach the ceiling. Then it was a quick setup. Pot into net, second hook looped into the top of net, and two hooks hitched to each other, and voila! Hanging plant.

They stared at their handiwork for a moment, the pot swinging gently, eventually slowing to a stop, the little green shoots looking surprisingly vulnerable up there…

He wondered if that sentiment and mild anxiety was his or if it was coming off of V.

The macramé net looked totally stable, though; strong and well woven. If anything, Eddie was more worried about where the first hook was stuck into the ceiling. He was pretty sure the threads of the screw had caught on pretty well to the stud up there, but it was a worry nonetheless, and in his opinion a more reasonable one than worrying about the net itself coming apart.

**“WHAT DO YOU THINK, EDDIE?”**

He smiled at the symbiote. “What, can’t you tell?”

V gave him a look. **“WE DON’T HEAR _EVERY_ THOUGHT, JUST THE VERY LOUD ONES. OR THE ONES YOU THINK _AT_ US. WE DON’T PRY INTO EVERY THOUGHT YOU HAVE.”**

“I kind of figured, V,” he said, stroking the symbiote’s head. “I was just teasing. But I think it looks good. Practical and sturdy, and it looks nice, too. You did good work.”

V tried to preen while they pressed against Eddie’s palm, reminding him more and more of a cat as they did so. V often reminded him of a cat. It was only a matter of time before either V started purring in earnest… or Eddie was broken down enough to get a cat for them. He knew that V was down for the idea. Their thoughts on the matter hadn’t exactly been subtle over the last few weeks.

Knitting, cats, potted plants… his terrifying alien from another planet was turning into a retired grandmother. And it was kind of adorable.

V pulled away from the petting after a moment, and cast an eye over the rest of the pots and planters. The planters were long, and more or less fixtures meant for the windowsills – and every single window the apartment had, had at least one planter stuck on it. They planned to rotate them on occasion to make sure everyone got an equal amount of sunlight. The pots were more traditional pots – the plastic kind with the attached tray at the bottom to catch the drainage. There were eight of those. So far.

**“WE WILL WORK ON MORE NETS TONIGHT. NOW WE HAVE DONE IT ONCE, WE CAN DO IT FASTER.”**

“Of course you can,” Eddie laughed. “I’m beginning to think that there’s not much you _can’t_ do, V. You pick up all this stuff so damn fast.”

**“IT’S NOT COMPLICATED, EDDIE, ONCE WE KNOW THE RULES.”** V sounded surprised by Eddie’s reaction, giving him a curious look. **“YOUR CIRCULATORY AND ENDOCRINE SYSTEMS ARE COMPLEX. YOUR NEURAL NETWORK REQUIRES CONCENTRATION AND CARE. THIS IS JUST KNOTS.”**

“Which you make pretty because you’re skilled at what you do. And you learn quickly, like I said. Just because it’s not as complex as finding your way through a living body doesn’t make it any less impressive that you can do it as well as you do.”

**“IF YOU SAY SO, EDDIE…”** They trailed off, and looked back over all of the pots, all of the little green shoots which had been steadily pushing their way up to the surface. He could feel the pride and happiness that the plants all seemed to be doing well – even if they were still a little too slow for their liking, despite his singing to them every day. **“DO YOU THINK THAT WE’LL BE GETTING A LOT OF BUTTERFLIES? OR MAYBE BEES?”**

Eddie _had_ actually been thinking of that, actually. And now he hoped that V had been right that they couldn’t hear _every_ thought that went through his head, because he’d actually been plotting a surprise for them. The problem before being: how did one hide plans from someone who was literally in your head?

But maybe the surprise wasn’t completely spoiled…

“I think it might actually be a bit late in the year already to hope for very much, V,” he admitted. “We kind of got a late start overall. That might be why they have all been as sluggish as they have been. And by the time any of them bloom, we’ll have passed peak butterfly season. We could still get plenty of bees, though,” he added, less than happy about that part of it. Though if they were bees and not wasps, it wouldn’t be that bad.

The disappointment which came off of V was unmistakable, but Eddie could tell that they weren’t completely surprised. **“NEXT YEAR WE WILL START MUCH EARLIER, AND WE WILL GET MANY BUTTERFLIES.”**

Eddie smiled to himself. The great conqueror and devourer, planning to attract butterflies with their collection of flowers.

“I’ve been thinking about it, V, and I think that we might be able to see a _lot_ of butterflies, actually. Like, more than you would have imagined attracting with our little garden.”

V glanced at him, curious, and cautiously optimistic. **“HOW WOULD WE DO THAT?”**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want that mug, honestly. XD
> 
> \---
> 
> You can find me on  
> Tumblr: [@ehtarwrites](http://ehtarwrites.tumblr.com/)  
> Twitter: [@ehtarwrites](https://twitter.com/ehtarwrites)  
> Discord: @ehtarwrites#4962 
> 
> If anyone wants to come say hi or chat about nerdy things, hmu! ♥


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this came out... quite a bit later than usual, guys. I caught a cold, overslept a bit, and didn't have time to finish this up before having to leave for work. :(
> 
> But! Still made it on the right day, so. Enjoy! 🦋

It had been a while since the last time Eddie had come to visit Golden Gate Park. If he remembered right, he’d come because of work, so he hadn’t really been looking around with much of an eye for beauty, or for how it provided an oasis in the city. He’d been more focused on the nefarious things which had been taking place inside it. Not the fault of the park itself – just circumstance that bad guys thought it was a good place to try and get away with whatever they were up to. He hadn’t really given much thought to anything like the park’s assumed peacefulness, save as something to reference, something to get other people to sit up and take notice once it had been defiled.

He got the feeling that he used to miss a lot of things because he’d been so focused on his work.

Now, though. Now he _did_ notice, and the more he noticed, the more V was also taking an interest in their surroundings. It was still possible to see the buildings of San Francisco over the tops of the trees, but there were _trees_. There were birds flitting around the branches, squirrels running along the ground and up the trunks of those trees. It might not really feel like they had left the city and were somewhere in the wilderness, but the city at least felt a little more distant.

It wasn’t the park itself they’d come to see. Though, now that V was aware of it, he had no doubt that they would be coming back as often as they could manage. It was very possible that Venom would be visiting the park they next time They were out…

There were several gardens scattered across the Park, and they were heading for one in the North Eastern corner. The Conservatory of Flowers. Their specialty was pretty obvious, as was how they were set up. Rather than a garden open to the skies, it was a _conservatory_ , a giant greenhouse stuffed full of plants which did best in more controlled atmospheres. Inside there would be a wide variety of flowers from all over the world, including ones which would never thrive if left out in California’s natural weather.

The Conservatory also hosted regular exhibits, not all of them strictly plants.

**EDDIE, THIS IS A _GREENHOUSE?_**

_Sure is._ He turned to give the place a good long look, and smiled. _Pretty nice, isn’t it?_

**YES…**

It _was_ a greenhouse, but it was absolutely huge. Like a small castle constructed out of panes of glass in white frames. It put Eddie in mind of a small Taj Mahal. A large, domed center building, off of which two long branches extended to either side, which in turn also branched into ‘L’s reaching forward. The approach to the conservatory included a small, well-tended garden of colorful flowers native to the area, lain out in geometric patterns sprawling out in front of the building, making it so there were two walkways to either side leading to the stairs up the little hill, and then up to the conservatory itself.

They’d come fairly early – about as early as they could and the place still be open. The Conservatory didn’t have extreme hours, they opened up at 10am, so even late risers didn’t have to struggle very much to get to the doors at the same time as the employees.

But it still wasn’t too bad. It was a weekday, and there weren’t many parents who would get their kids up and going even this early just to see a bunch of flowers.

Within him, he felt V taking it all in, and could feel how eager they were to go inside and see what sorts of plants they had. Eddie still hadn’t told them the main purpose of their visit. That was still a surprise, but they knew that there was something more to look forward to. V had kept their word that they wouldn’t peek in on his brain to find out what he had planned, but they could _tell_ that there was something more to the day. That Eddie had something special up his sleeve.

They made their approach, and Eddie could feel how much V wanted to manifest – and not just in his snake-like head and tentacles, but as the full body which was nearly the same as when They were Venom, but slightly smaller and trailing tendrils between them, keeping them connected. Eddie could tell that it took effort for them not to come out and to take close looks at the flowers along the walks, to examine them closely with all of their senses. The only thing holding them back was the presence of other people.

Eddie took pity and did what V wanted to do, and squatted down close to the blooming beds. V might not be able to show themselves the way they wanted to, but it was possible to experience a little of what they wanted to _through_ Eddie.

**THESE ARE NICE, EDDIE,** they said. **WE SHOULD GET SOME LIKE THIS FOR OUR HOME.**

He raised a brow, realizing he was doing it at someone who was _inside_ him and couldn’t see it. _All of them, V?_

**DON’T BE STUPID, THEY WOULDN’T ALL FIT. JUST A FEW. …UNLESS WE GET A BIGGER APARTMENT… OR A CABIN?**

_V. We’re not getting a cabin just so we can have a big garden._

**OF COURSE NOT,** V agreed readily enough. **IT WOULD ALSO BE GOOD TO HAVE FOR HAVING MORE PRIVACY AND SPACE.**

Eddie chuckled, not caring that it drew him a couple of looks from passersby. It was probably a good thing they _did_ live in a big city. If there were a lot of people who saw him every day and got to know his habit of chuckling to himself or occasionally murmuring aloud when there was no one present, he would earn himself quite the reputation. Not that he wasn’t going that way regardless, but…

_Not in the cards, I think, love. We’ll just have to do what we can with planters. Maybe one day we can get a really nice apartment with a balcony or something._

That seemed to perk up the symbiote even more, and Eddie smiled to himself. A nicer apartment was much more manageable than a house – or a cabin. A nicer apartment had actually been on Eddie’s mind to start hunting for once he started getting more traction and bringing in enough funds to afford it. Of course, _V_ was starting to bring in enough of an income to contribute significantly to any sort of new home arrangements they made… but it felt weird to think about relying even a little on their income for something like that. V didn’t _owe_ anything like that. Any money they earned was theirs to spend however they wanted to.

They walked into the conservatory, and there was an immediate difference in the atmosphere. The air was heavy with moisture, and they were hit with a riot of smells Eddie could only recognize as ‘vegetation,’ without being able to pick out any individual notes.

Internally, V was paying even more attention. Eddie could swear that he could _feel_ as they picked apart the chemical components of what Eddie was breathing in, examining each one in turn to figure out what they were. It was a supremely weird impression, and made him wonder if it would be possible for V to identify every individual type of flower and plant in the area like that. _Eddie_ might not be able to differentiate between anything he smelled, but V might be able to.

He paid for their ticket in – _his_ ticket in, since he only had to pay for one – and the little extra fee for the exhibit they were going to see. Thankfully he only had to mention it as ‘the exhibit,’ and V was left in the dark a little longer as to _what_ they were there to see, besides flowers.

And there were flowers. A _lot_ of flowers.

The conservatory was separated out into sections, and even though Eddie could _see_ that it was all just a very large and well laid out greenhouse, it _felt_ a little bit like a theme park. The place was stuffed from top to bottom with plants of all kinds, and it was hard to know if when he looked in one particular place or another if he was seeing _everything_ there was to see, or if he was somehow missing something in the crowd.

They walked through slowly. Eddie would have been inclined to do so anyway – it was a day off, damn it, and he was going to enjoy the time he had in a place _meant_ to be taken in slowly – but V had them walking even slower than that. They examined every single bloom they passed, reading any information card posted up about what they were seeing, taking in everything they could about the plant they could through their senses… Eddie suspected that V was actually a little sad that they couldn’t get away with reaching out with a long tongue and _licking_ everything they saw, as well.

It was a weird impulse to have, even secondhand. Licking flowers.

He’d expected, upon deciding to come to the conservatory, that V would have been a chatterbox in his head. V wasn’t _super_ talkative all the time, even though it had felt like they had been at first. Having an extra voice in his head had probably contributed to that impression disproportionately. But despite what Eddie had been expecting, V was unusually quiet. It was one of the few times when Eddie was out and walking in public, around other _people_ , and V wasn’t making some sort of running commentary. They usually had _something_ to say about the day or what was going on around them. It was a little like having a comedy track running in his head constantly. Only less comedic and more cannibalistic. Which could also be funny at times. Or maybe his sense of humor was just being warped by the symbiote in his head.

But V remained silent. At least verbally.

They might not be _saying_ very much, but that didn’t stop Eddie from picking up plenty from them anyway. The sights and smells they were taking in was having an effect on V, and not just one of interest or of wanting to take every single pot and planter home with them – though there was plenty of that in there as well. Rather, the different sections of the conservatory were bringing memories to the surface for them.

Eddie could feel them flickering along the edges of his—of _their_ awareness. Strange, fractured things of mixed impressions. Bits of sights, many more of smells close to but not quite the same as those which surrounded them now. Sounds which were familiar but at the same time terrifyingly different. And through it all V’s remembered responses of adrenaline, of wonder and interest in the worlds they visited, and of tearing through it all in whatever borrowed body they had, experiencing it all through senses which Eddie had trouble reconciling with his own.

It took a moment for Eddie to realize that the reason, or _part_ of the reason that the impressions he was picking up from V felt so muffled and distant was because they were deliberately putting some distance between him and the memories. There were parts of them which they were keeping private, hidden.

It stung a surprising amount, thinking that there was anything which V would deliberately keep hidden from him like that – something which reminded them of where they were even now and which seemed to be so pleasant to recall…

The slight twinge of guilt from V made Eddie realize why it was they were keeping certain parts of their memories quartered off from him.

They were memories from other worlds V had been to. Which meant they were worlds which he had eaten, showing no mercy. V didn’t want Eddie to see that side of them, to be reminded that vividly of what they had once been.

Eddie rubbed at his sternum, sending the symbiote as much comfort as he could through the link, reassuring them. It seemed to help, settling V, but they still didn’t allow Eddie any further into their older memories. Eddie didn’t push. V would share if and when they felt comfortable enough to do so.

They progressed through the conservatory, travelling through what felt like several different continents as they did so. Which was very much the point. One section in particular, the ‘Highland Tropical’ section, was a bit of a shock to walk into, as the conservatory had decided to mimic the highlands entirely, including the mist. And in each section Eddie felt as V took it all in, remembering other entire worlds, thinking of how similar those other places were to this one they had landed on – and how unique they had all been from each other, and how unique Earth was to every other one they had ever known.

Like with the memories which Eddie only caught glancing fragments of, he could feel V think to themself that a part of the reason Earth seemed so very special was because it was the planet which they had spent the most time attempting to understand, that it had made a connection with them before they could get to the business of consuming everything in sight.

That it was because of the eyes they had looked through that they had ever been able to see the world for how beautiful it really was.

They went through every section except for the one where the exhibit was taking place, which Eddie saved for the last. By the time they got there, he could feel V practically vibrating with curiosity.

**IS IT A SPECIAL KIND OF PLANT, EDDIE? OR IS IT SOMETHING WHICH WE WILL BE ALLOWED TO TAKE HOME?**

_Not telling, babe. You’re just gonna have to wait until we go in, aren’t ya?_

V grumbled, but it wasn’t very heartfelt. They still strained forward, metaphorically, and taking just a little bit of control of Eddie’s legs to give him an internal shove, making him stumble.

_You’re like a kid, sometimes, you know that?_

**AM NOT.**

Eddie snorted, and reached for the door to the final section of the conservatory. There was sign on it which warned to not leave the door open for long, to close it quickly and carefully behind them, lest portions of the exhibit escape…

Eddie pulled his eyes away from the sign before V could gather much from it, though he felt their confusion on the wording.

He opened the door, stepped in quickly, and shut the door again behind them. And then he turned to look, and…

And it was like stepping into a forest of gemstones.

Living, fluttering gems of color, attached to every surface, to every plant and flower on the other side of the door. They were attached to the glass panels which made up the walls of the conservatory, wings gently spreading and closing over and over.

V, if it were possible, went even quieter than before, staring round them with Eddie’s eyes.

_You said you wanted to see a lot of butterflies, right?_ Eddie prodded slightly, a little worried at just _how_ quiet they had gone.

**YES, EDDIE… I DID…**

Which seemed to be about as much as V was capable of saying. But if they were being quiet verbally, there was no mistaking the happiness and wonder coming to him through the bond. There was no mistake or ambiguity there. V was as delighted as Eddie had hoped they would be.

There were a few others in the exhibit room with them, but they were all fixated on the butterflies, and didn’t notice him still standing at the door. It probably didn’t even register with many of them that someone else had come in. At least he wouldn’t have to worry about taking his tour even more slowly in here, since that too seemed to be the norm. He might have gotten a look or two for just _how_ slow he’d been going while looking at flowers, but no one was going to give him grief for taking his time to look at the butterflies extra close. They were all doing the same thing.

Along one wall there was a display. A case with rows of cocoons carefully mounted up. Even as Eddie, V and several others watched, there were a couple of butterflies who were struggling free of their chrysalises. They watched as the little insects emerged, their wings wet and crumpled, their bodies unsteady as they crawled out and clung to the outside of their once-worlds and simply rested.

**EDDIE, ARE THEY BROKEN? DID THEY COME OUT WRONG?**

_Nah, love, they’re just tired._

**BUT, THEIR WINGS…**

He could feel the concern bubbling up from the symbiote. It was an odd feeling to actually feel coming from V over anything which wasn’t him, Annie, possibly Dan or Mrs. Chen… or their chocolate supply. It wasn’t that Eddie didn’t think that V was _capable_ of compassion, it was just that they were usually very, very selective about the sorts of things which they felt those sorts of things for. Insects seemed like an odd thing to be so worried about.

_It’s alright, V. It’s just because they were cramped up inside the cocoons, they needed to be folded like that to fit. Look, see, they’re already started to dry out._

Which was true, slowly the wings of the butterflies were drying and filling out to actually look more like wings, and less like stunted and broken lumps attached to their backs. As the wings dried, the gentle trembling of the butterflies steadied, their strength increasing, and they fanned the new appendages gently, getting used to this whole new part of themselves.

Watching as the butterflies behind the glass slowly came to terms with themselves, it occurred to Eddie what a change it was they had really gone through. He hadn’t really thought about it at all since he’d been in school, and there had been an entire year with a focus in the science class on entomology for some reason. And even then, he didn’t think that he’d ever tried to think of it from the point of view of the bug. It wasn’t the sort of thing pre-teen Eddie Brock had ever bothered to do much, and certainly not with bugs.

It was occurring to him now, though, and it was making his head swim just a little bit trying to conceptualize what the experience must be like. To begin life as one sort of creature, a little worm whose only concerns revolved around food – finding enough for themselves and making sure not to become something else’s. Their entire worldview revolved around those two goals, their point of view of the world literally being from the ground up. The world was larger than they could even imagine – if caterpillars did anything as obscure as ‘imagine’ things. They couldn’t even see very far beyond themselves, let alone enough to see how big the world really was – how small they were in comparison. Even if they could see scope of the little part of the world they could conceivably explore, it was an infinitesimal speck, a tiny corner of a whole world which they lived in.

And then one day they… changed. Something happened to them. Maybe there was an instinct which just told them _now_ , where their little bodies took over from them. Or perhaps they knew somehow on some level what was happening, and they found a good place to climb to, and spun themselves up in their chrysalises.

And in those cocoons, the caterpillars died.

The caterpillar ceased to be. Everything which they had been melted away, their ways of looking at the world stripped away, and something _new_ formed within.

When they emerged again, was it even fair to call them the same creature? Their shape had completely changed, their function and how they interacted with the world around them all been altered so much that they were probably unrecognizable even to themselves. A worm that could do no more than crawl and eat and survive became a butterfly, a creature who could soar and travel and whose imperatives now included more than simply ‘eat.’

Their perception of the world was widened so far, the eyes through which they could see also altered… if there was any sort of identity left over from the caterpillar, what was it like for them after the change? Could they understand this new thing they were, and how the world around them had also seemed to change?

What did the caterpillar think of itself, now that it was dead, and it wore the skin of Someone New?

It was no wonder it took them a little time to adjust, after all of that.

When the wings of the butterflies they were watching finished drying, and were flapping easily – one a bright orange and black Monarch, the other a type Eddie didn’t know the name of, but a vibrant blue – V sighed.

**IT’S NOT LIKE THAT IN THE GAME,** V said, sounding mildly put out. **THEY JUST HATCH AND ARE FINE.**

_Well, you know. Sometimes games don’t show everything that’s true. I can guarantee you that things like rabbits and deer don’t make cocoons when it’s time for **them** to grow up, but the game shows that._

**WE KNOW, EDDIE. WE CHECKED.**

Eddie snickered a little bit. He couldn’t help it. V had been across the universe and knew more than Eddie could dream of, but they still needed to check to know whether or not mammals spun cocoons.

There were fewer plants overall in the first room of the exhibit, which seemed to be the general emergence and recovery room for new butterflies. Most of the greenery was all around the edges, leaving the center open for visitors, save for a large fountain right in the center. Around the lip of the fountain there were set several bright plastic dishes in the shape of flowers. The centers had… some sort of paste, which given how many butterflies were clustered round them, Eddie assumed was some sort of bug food. There were plenty of live flowers as well, many of them being checked out by butterflies. Probably the feeders were a concentrated version of whatever it was that the butterflies actually ate. Like how hummingbird feeders which were basically just sugar water. The birds could find what they needed other places, but the feeders made it easier to get a lot _more_ of what they wanted.

There wasn’t much more to look at in the first room. Just the display with cocoons, the fountain and feeders, the few flowers around the edge, and of course the butterflies themselves.

There were a _lot_ of butterflies. Part of the reason everyone was moving so slowly in this room, Eddie realized, was because they were being cautious with how they were moving. Plenty of the insects landed on the ground, as well as on higher surfaces, and it was a good idea to watch where you were putting your feet.

It became automatic to move slowly just because of how many of them were flapping through the air as well. Eddie seriously doubted that they were be much hurt by bumping into a human unless one or other of them were going _really_ fast… But it was unpleasant to think of running into the poor things as they fluttered aimlessly through the room. It was easier to just go slow and let them get to wherever it was they were going without making it even harder for them.

There was a second room to the exhibit, which was much more like the rest of the conservatory. It was similar to the ‘Tropical Highland’ room, in that it was warm and misty, and the flowers which were on display were bright and pungent. There were fewer butterflies actually flying through the air in this room, probably because of how much more there was for them to land on and explore. The few which were travelling through the air appeared and disappeared through the mist like little winged ghosts.

They stayed in that room for over an hour. V insisted on getting as close to some as they possibly could, examining their wings, their bodies, their faces and eyes. At first Eddie was of the opinion that a butterfly’s charm sharply fell relative to how close one was to them. But V’s fascination with them, like everything else they felt, was infectious. V was absolutely absorbed in how they were constructed, in how their little bodies worked and was put together, and it seemed like they wouldn’t be happy until they had one under a microscope.

Until then, they had to deal with Eddie and his poor human eyesight to tell them all they could.

Thankfully the butterflies were all nonplussed by the human shoving his face right into their space. He wasn’t sure how relaxed butterflies were in general, but he got the feeling that these ones were especially chilled out. Which worked out just fine for him, and which only delighted V even more.

**EDDIE! EDDIE, LOOK DOWN!**

Eddie looked down quickly, backing up a step. He’d not been paying attention, had he actually stepped on one of them…?

He froze, and realized what it was that V was trying to draw his attention to. Somewhere along the line, a couple of the little guys had decided to land on his chest. Both of them were the blue types, though one of them had such thick markings that they looked completely black at first glance.

Eddie stared at them, not sure what to do. He’d seen a couple of other people be graced with passengers, and their reactions had ranged a little bit, but for the most part they had just… waited until the butterflies decided to leave on their own. That seemed like the best sort of course, overall. It was surprisingly tempting to pet the little guys, but he wasn’t sure of that would hurt them, if his body oils would mess with them…

V, on the other hand, wasn’t so hampered. Eddie felt it start to happen right before he saw it. A tiny tendril coming out of his chest, working its way through his clothes, to very, _very_ gently brush against the insects camped out on Eddie’s shirt.

The butterflies, surprisingly, didn’t react very much. They took a couple steps away, wings flapping lazily, their antennae waving through the air in search, perhaps, of what it was which had touched them.

Giddy delight ran through the symbiote. And since the butterflies didn’t retreat completely, they repeated the action, reaching out with the tiny, incredibly thin tendril to stroke along the butterflies, petting them in the same way Eddie had been tempted to do.

Amazingly, they allowed V to continue to touch and stroke for some time before deciding that they had had enough. Watching them flap off into the mist, getting lost in the vague shadows of the surrounding plants and planters, Eddie wondered if they had on some level enjoyed the touch. How did one figure out if a bug liked something or not?

_What do you think, V?_

**…I THINK THIS HAS BEEN A GOOD DAY, EDDIE.**

On the way out of the Conservatory, Eddie made a side trip to the tiny gift shop they had. It was, obviously, stuffed full of flower themed things, and botany in general, but they found a couple other things to pick up as well.

They walked out with a couple new packets of seeds, a book which was heavy on large, detailed pictures of flowers around the world, a small stuffed toy Monarch butterfly, and an order form which would, once it was sent in, would get them a ‘Kid’s Home Science Kit,’ allowing them to raise their very own family of butterflies.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only one chapter to go! 💕
> 
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> 
> You can find me on  
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> If anyone wants to come say hi or chat about nerdy things, hmu! ♥


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's the final chapter! Thank you, everyone, who's been reading along with this! I wasn't really sure what the reaction would be to something this soft and domestic (and honestly schmoopy in places) in the Venom fandom, but y'all surprised me. It's been an absolute delight, and I send you all a bar, box or bag of your favorite chocolates! 🍫

**EDDIE? WOULD… WOULD IT BE ALRIGHT IF WE TRIED SOMETHING A LITTLE DIFFERENT TODAY?**

Eddie paused for a second, surprised. They’d just gotten up, and hadn’t really begun their routine yet. No shower yet, no breakfast, they were still getting ready to start in on their yoga sets. Normally V wouldn’t break in on his thoughts so early. This time was set aside not just for the exercise and stretching, but for… feeling each other out. It had become a baked-in part of the routine, really. Yoga offered them the perfect opportunity to sort of… get in tune with one another before they even began the rest of their day.

It was nice. It was grounding to begin the day by just feeling one another out and being reminded of how much a part of him V really was.

It wasn’t something which V had interrupted in a long time, not even for a small side comment. It seemed to be something which they considered sort of… sacred; their private, quiet time together.

“I… guess so? What did you have in mind?”

**WE… WOULD LIKE TO DO THE STRETCHES WITH YOU TODAY.**

Eddie frowned. “What do you mean, hon? You always do the stretches with me.” He smiled a little. “Or would you like for me to mess up my balance so you can catch me like you used to in the beginning?”

**NO. WE WOULD LIKE TO DO THE STRETCHES AS WELL. WITH YOU.**

He paused. It took a moment for V’s meaning to make sense, V’s feelings on the matter unusually repressed. Most of what Eddie was able to pick up was… embarrassment? Or awkwardness, maybe?

“Oh.” He blinked. “Um. Sure, I guess? I mean, I’m not sure how much you’d be getting out of it. You don’t have muscles to stretch.”

**“I WOULD BE GETTING YOU OUT OF IT, EDDIE.”**

The voice was right by his ear as V began to manifest from his shoulder. But they went far beyond what they normally did when they decided to show themself, beyond a simple snake-like entity coming from him, clearly attached to Eddie. They appeared and appeared until they were the same shape as They were when They were Venom. They weren’t the same size as when They were Venom, thankfully, they were closer to Eddie’s size. Eddie stared at them, for some reason just a little bit intimidated. Which was ridiculous, he knew. V was still V, no matter their size or level of manifestation, and even though they were practically a separate creature from him, they really _weren’t_. They were still attached to Eddie through thin tendrils, never really gone, never not a part of him. He could still hear and feel them just as well as when they were fully nestled in his chest.

And yet, he was still a little overwhelmed by having V in front of him, full bodied and staring. It was easier to smile at them when they appeared to be no more than a serpent. The forked tongue tickling at his ear.

He chuckled, and hoped it didn’t sound too nervous. Not that it mattered if it _sounded_ nervous. That mental and emotional connection went both ways.

“And here I thought you had me all the time, regardless. Wasn’t that what you said, _way_ back when? ‘You are mine’?”

**“YES.”** Eddie’s gaze caught on the long fangs, the wide stretch of V’s mouth. Both seemed to have been enhanced by their choice in body. Or maybe Eddie was just more aware of them. **“BUT WE WANT TO SHARE THIS WITH YOU IN AN ACTIVE WAY. WE WANT TO BE WITH YOU IN A WAY WHERE WE ARE TOGETHER, BUT NOT THE _SAME_.”**

Eddie’s pulse jumped for some reason. It was kind of a weird request, but… not _really_ strange. Was it? It didn’t… _seem_ all that strange. They were together all of the time, but V was right. Their kind of together was more being ‘the same.’ Not completely the same, of course. They talked and argued and all of that, and those weren’t really things which would happen if they were completely _the same_. But they were more the same these days than they were separate. That was more or less exactly the kind of thing which the yoga was helping along.

Maybe that was why it felt like such a strange thing to request. Wanting to share the time together, but in a way which made them _separate_ … It was contradictory.

But there was no reason to refuse it, either.

“I mean, sure.” Eddie scooted a little to the side, making more room for V on the mat. He frowned, looked at how much room just having a second person on the cushioning took up. _Would_ they be able to do this together, or would a mat even be something V needed…? It seemed kind of mean to make them do any poses on the bare floor, but…

“So how would you like to--?”

**“WE DID SOME RESEARCH AGAIN, EDDIE,”** V interrupted, their words sounding uncharacteristically rushed.

“Did you? What sort of research?”

Again, a little sting of embarrassment came across the bond, though there wasn’t really any sign of that on V’s face. **“WE… LOOKED ONLINE FOR YOGA TO DO WITH A PARTNER.”**

A terrible suspicion started to occur to him. The possible results which V would have gotten if they’d gone on the internet and put in ‘yoga with a partner’ were… wide, and potentially terrifying.

“That right? And, uh. What sort of… positions were they suggesting we try?”

**“THEY DID NOT LOOK DIFFICULT,”** V said. They tilted their head, probably in response to the tension they were feeling coming off of Eddie. Certainly there was a little touch of curiosity and concern coming from V, but not enough for them to push verbally. **“THEY LOOKED SIMPLE. JUST USING ONE ANOTHER TO HELP DEEPEN STRETCHES, OR TO HELP WITH BALANCE.”**

Eddie nodded, trying to convince his heart to calm back down, and hoping there wasn’t a blush showing up on his face. “Sounds like what we’ve been doing already, really.”

**“YES.”** V agreed. **“BUT NO.”**

Eddie chuckled, waving his hand. “Alright, alright. Do you have the positions and everything memorized, or is there a page we should be bringing up on the computer?”

**“I HAVE IT MEMORIZED, EDDIE. CAN WE START?”**

“Y-yeah. Sure, V. I’ll let you lead on it.”

It was, perhaps, even less intense than he was thinking it would be after figuring out that when V put in ‘partner yoga’ they hadn’t gotten… what he thought they’d gotten.

With the help of their bond, and the ability to simply share a visual of each position, they started going through a new routine, where there were two bodies to figure out instead of just one.

They began sitting, facing one another with legs crossed. In that position, there were several stretches where they used one another as leverage to stretch. Or at least, helped _Eddie_ to stretch. There really was no physical advantage to V taking part in the yoga like this, but for Eddie, it was… nice. It hit places which were normally hard to target. The very first stretch was achieved simply by clasping on another’s forearms, and then each of them pulling back, concaving their chests to get a deep stretch across shoulders and back. Having V help by pulling him the other direction, giving Eddie something to pull against in turn, made the stretch much, much easier.

The rest were very similar to that first one. Helping one another to stretch, usually through mutual and mirrored effort. While remaining facing one another, they also went through spine twists, back arches going the opposite direction… after a few sets, V straightened their legs so that their feet were braced against Eddie’s knees, and then helped to pull him forward over his legs.

It was nice, and after the first few minutes of awkwardness and adjusting to the new setup, Eddie began to relax into it, which made all of it more comfortable to do.

Once Eddie began to relax, he noticed something he hadn’t really been expecting at all. A sort of… synchronicity building up between them. It was different from how they normally were when Eddie did his yoga sets and V, while they were there, wasn’t really _involved_ in any measurable way. When it was him moving through the sets alone, and V was nestled somewhere on the inside, there was a sense of being _together_ on a level so basic and deep that it was sometimes hard to separate themselves into individuals once the sets were done. They blended together, shortening the distance between each other even in thought so that they were practically Venom, even when they were still _Eddie_ and _V_.

This… this was different. This was them – them, not Them – moving together in body, their minds coming close together but not quite melding Together. Images of what it was they would be doing next would arise from V’s mind, and their bodies would move to make that image a reality. They moved easily _around_ each other, as much a product of their familiarity with one another as the link between them, with no stumbling or fumbling to know where they were meant to go.

In a way, Eddie felt more zoned out than he ever did while doing his yoga sets. His thoughts felt far away, things which were happening in the distance and which he was only vaguely aware of. At the same time, he felt more aware of… of _himself_ and of _V_ than he ever really had been before. He was aware of V’s hands, of their claws as they wrapped round him, engulfing _his_ hands until they disappeared in their blackness. He was acutely aware of just how much damage those hands could do – They had done more than enough for him to know that – and yet they held him gently.

In much the same way that he was aware of there being a separate mind which his own was bending around, rather than them being the same mind blending more and more Together, there was now another body to be aware of, and how they came together. Eddie was aware of _how_ V’s hands felt in his, how their limbs fit together, how their balance was affected by each other, and just the texture and feel of V’s body.

Whenever they were Venom, he was wrapped from head to foot in V. He knew what they felt like against his skin. And yet he didn’t think that he would ever be fully used to it, never so habituated to the sensation that he would lose the kind of wonder he had begun with, the very first time V had risen to the surface and they had become Venom. Warm and softly slick, without crossing the border into anything wet and slimy. V’s body was liquid-like, but against Eddie’s skin, they were dry, and felt like brushed satin.

Added to that was just how very gentle they were. In every way, physically, it looked as though V would be incredibly unpleasant to touch. They were large, terrifying, their skin looked damp, possibly even sticky to the touch, and watching as the symbiote wrapped around his body, Eddie could see how the experience would _appear_ to be like being wrapped from head to foot in an oil slick…

But it wasn’t. Whenever they became Venom, Eddie felt safe, protected. He felt… he felt _considered_.

V didn’t rip his agency away from him. They didn’t take him over mind and body and use him as a puppet, a means of surviving the planet on which they had found themselves. They were always careful with him, making certain that Eddie was taken care of, that he was secure. Eddie never worried when they became Venom – at least never about losing himself, or of V taking advantage of the bond. He could trust V, and _knew_ he could trust them in a way he would probably never be able to trust anyone else.

That trust was reflected in how they leaned on and depended on one another in their sets. It was strange, since they were each in their own bodies, and the stakes were far from high, but it was demonstrative of how much they had come to trust one another.

It was… nice, Eddie decided. With the little bit of extra distance, it was easier to see how _little_ distance there was between them anymore.

They went through all of their sets. Eddie felt more and more thoroughly stretched out and relaxed than he had ever managed to do on his own. And while V might not have had any muscles to work out for themself, he could tell that they were very pleased with joining in. Whatever it was that they could have gotten out of doing yoga with him, they had apparently gotten.

“That was… actually really nice.” Eddie grinned at them. “If you want to make this more a part of the routine, I’m not gonna say no.”

V paused for a second, an odd niggle of apprehension coming off of the symbiote. It caught his attention. It was, if anything, a little stronger than the embarrassment he thought he’d been picking up from V when they’d first been suggesting that they do the yoga sets as two separate beings. Which seemed strange to him. After going through an hour of yoga and getting to the comfortable level of synchronicity that they had during that time… what else was there to be embarrassed about?

“What’s up, V?”

V had actually lowered their head a little bit, not looking Eddie in the eyes. They raised up again now, fixing Eddie with a look. **“THERE IS ONE MORE THING WE WOULD LIKE TO TRY, EDDIE. NOT A STRETCH, BUT A- A POSITION MEANT TO BRING TWO PEOPLE CLOSER TOGETHER.”**

Eddie almost laughed. “How much closer could we possibly get? You live _inside_ of me most of the time.”

The feeling of embarrassment only increased, even without Eddie laughing. It was enough to make him stop. This obviously wasn’t something which V felt comfortable saying – which was fairly impressive for the symbiote. It wasn’t like they had much in the way of filters – or tact, most of the time. Making them feel even more awkward about it was kind of a dick move.

**“WE WOULD JUST… LIKE TO TRY IT. WE FOUND IT IN OUR RESEARCH AND… AND WE THINK IT COULD BE NICE.”**

Shoving down any more impulses he might have to react with amusement, Eddie nodded. “Yeah, sure. Of course we can try it. We can try anything you like, V. What was it you found?”

After all, how much harm could it possibly do?

Somehow still managing to make it feel slow and hesitant, V shared [the image](https://thumb-p8.xhcdn.com/000/231/482/068_1000.jpg) of what they wanted to try out with Eddie.

He went still. Oh. Well, that would explain the embarrassment. At the same time, though, it really didn’t look all that bad…

“Well, that doesn’t… doesn’t look too hard, does it?” He scratched at the back of his neck, realizing even as he did so that it was a nervous sort of reaction and that V would recognize it as one. “Um. S-so, you want to be the one on… on bottom?”

V tilted their head at him. He could tell that they were still a little nervous, but it was easing now that Eddie had accepted the idea. Seemed like it was Eddie who felt the most awkward, now. **“FIRST WE HAVE TO SIT FACING EACH OTHER, EDDIE. BEFORE WE GET AS CLOSE AS THIS,”** that image again, making Eddie’s cheeks get even hotter, **“WE ARE SUPPOSED TO JUST SIT QUIETLY TOGETHER AND… ALIGN OURSELVES.”**

Eddie did let out a small chuckle at that. It was a bit of a relief. It felt like there was an awful lot of laughter which was straining to get out, but which he didn’t dare to actually _let_ out. This seemed safe enough, though. ‘Align oneself’ was the sort of language he’d done his best to avoid while getting all of the yoga positions and routines put together. There was a spiritual practice which normally went hand-in-hand with yoga, but Eddie had no interest in any of that, just in the exercise itself. Which was very possible to find, but occasionally traces still showed.

“Align ourselves, huh? Like our energies or something?”

**“I THINK THAT IS WHAT THEY MEANT,”** V admitted. **“BUT I THINK FOR US, WE CAN USE IT TO MEAN ‘ALIGN TO EACH OTHER.’”**

Which was fair enough, and made sense. Eddie gave one last little chuckle, and nodded. It’s not like the whole energies thing would have put him off of the idea at this point, but it was still something worth chuckling over, he thought. An amorphous alien putting stock in the theory of chakras and bodily energy flows. What was there in that which _wasn’t_ funny?

“Alright, then. You… you lead the way.”

For the start, it really was a case of just sitting very close to one another. They sat cross-legged and facing one another, and close enough that their knees touched. Once in position, V reached out and took Eddie’s hands, holding them gently between them – not even really gripping him, but just… holding his hands in theirs loosely.

A part of what the position entailed, and which V gently guided Eddie to do via thought, was to simply focus on one another. To hold each other’s gaze and… ‘align themselves’ to each other, whatever that meant. Well, Eddie had a pretty good idea what it meant, even if he wouldn’t be able to explain it to anyone who _didn’t_ have a symbiotic alien in their head all the time.

But while he had a pretty good idea of what that meant, holding V’s eye was surprisingly difficult.

Eddie didn’t really have trouble with eye contact. He was a reporter and interviewer, holding someone’s eye was pretty much a part of the job. A reporter who couldn’t look someone in the eye would find themselves in a pretty impossible game to win. He might have had a little trouble with it way back in the beginning of his career, but Eddie had long ago learned to suck it up.

That was different from what was happening here. V and Eddie weren’t speaking to one another – they weren’t even communicating via their bond. They were just… staring at one another. Continuously. While sitting very close together and holding hands. It probably would have been a little nerve wracking with anyone, but with V, Eddie’s heart felt as though it were trying to find an escape route.

They sat for so long, just staring at one another, with Eddie doing his best to even out his breathing and calm his heart down, that Eddie’s thoughts wandered off into wondering _why_ he was so nervous. _Why_ was he freaking out about sitting and holding hands with his symbiote, when – as he’d just pointed out – V lived _inside him_ most of the time? It wasn’t as though this were particularly… it wasn’t really _intimate_ , was it? Not in the same way that it would have been with other people. If it had been Anne, for example, yeah, he could see where the awkwardness and the heart racing and the blushing would all be coming from… but this was V. V wasn’t most people. Their relationship, it… it wasn’t…

V’s claws brushed lightly over the backs of Eddie’s knuckles, and he jumped. He’d let his thoughts wander too far, and his gaze had also wandered away. He smiled apologetically at V.

_Sorry._

**IT’S ALRIGHT.** V’s grin quirked slightly, a little throb of humor coming through the bond, reassuring him.

In a way, that tiny coil of humor defused a good portion of the strange tension which had been building. Breathing came a little easier, and his heart felt less like it was trying to bruise itself against his ribs.

A few more minutes passed, and then V tugged slightly on Eddie’s hands.

Eddie had sunk again into that state of mind he had achieved before during their sets, where thoughts felt distant. Which was probably a blessing, considering what that tug was prompting him to do. Had he still been thinking as busily as he had been before, his brain might have melted from how overdrive it would have been going, now.

Moving carefully, Eddie unfolded his legs and swung them over V’s thighs. With the help of his own hands and a few of V’s tendrils, he lifted up and settled himself into V’s lap, his legs stretching out behind V.

Their bodies were incredibly close, now. Eddie was fully in V’s lap, settled into the little hollow formed by their cross legged position, their bellies and chests pressing together. In order to keep balance, V had their arms wrapped around Eddie, their palms pressing into his back, and Eddie had to swing his own arms around V’s shoulders, basically embracing one another. But even if balance didn’t necessitate the position, Eddie was pretty sure that they would have ended up this way, anyway. This close, it was just more comfortable.

He settled in, tilting his head just slightly so he tapped against V’s head. That also felt natural, as did the little ripple of affection the motion caused.

According to the information floating through V’s mind, the position was meant to bring the two people who were practicing it into better accord. It was a very intimate position, no two ways about that, even if it wasn’t… _intimate_ in the way most people meant when they used the word. Being this close together, there was no way to avoid being fully aware of the other person, of taking them in and feeling them in a way which was probably entirely new.

Even with how close he and V were normally, it was _still_ new. He was aware of the weight of V against him in a way which he never really was when they were Venom. He was aware of V’s palms on his back, of their head on his shoulder, of their arms pressing in on his sides, of the definite resistance against Eddie’s torso as he breathed slowly, in and out…

How long they remained before he realized something, he didn’t know for certain. Long enough for him to have relaxed in V’s lap, the last of his tension giving out so it felt as though the symbiote were holding him up completely. He chuckled lightly, catching V’s attention.

**WHAT IS IT, EDDIE?**

He shook his head a little, a tiny motion, given their position. _Nothing, really. I just realized, we’re meant to be aligning to each other, coming more and more into synchronicity, yeah?_

**YES.**

_Well, normally, that would mean for humans things like- like their breathing lining up, stuff like that. Thing is, though, we can’t really do that, since you don’t breathe._

There was a slight pause, and then another little ripple of humor. Against Eddie’s head, he felt V shift slightly, possibly a small motion meant to be a look towards him, but they were too close. **MAYBE NOT IN THE SAME WAY AS WAS MEANT,** they agreed. **BUT SOMETHING CLOSE FOR US. IT’S NOT THAT I _DON’T_ BREATHE.**

_Oh?_ This was news to him. _What is it, then?_

V did shift then, pulling away just enough so that they could look at one another, and then back together so that their foreheads pressed together. It was the last part of the position, Eddie realized, recognizing it from V’s memory. As wrapped up together as it was possible – for humans – to be while still sharing the arguably greater intimacy of staring into one another’s eyes. Eddie’s heart thumped hard again at the shift, and he held on harder, as though that would help him. As though that would stop the feeling of an incoming shift in everything he knew…

V’s eyes, even though they lacked iris and pupil or anything which would be recognizable to Eddie as anything which _could_ look, gave a very clear impression of staring deep into him – as deep as V themself ever got when they were a part of him.

**IT IS NOT THAT I _DON’T_ BREATHE,** they repeated. **IT IS… I _CAN’T_ BREATHE WITHOUT YOU, EDDIE.**

For a second it felt as though the words made it so Eddie couldn’t breathe either.

On their surface, Eddie knew that they were strictly true. V wouldn’t have been able to survive on Earth, in their atmosphere without taking refuge in the body of something or someone who could. It was just a simple fact of how V, as a symbiote, functioned.

But that wasn’t what came through the bond to Eddie. The words… they were incidental to the meaning which pulsed through the bond. The words themselves, they were secondary to the emotion which suffused them, and which flooded over and through Eddie.

Love. Pure and simple, with no caveats or qualifications.

Eddie blinked, the air in his lungs rushing out all at once. Distantly he felt himself hold on to V even more tightly than before, a desperate attempt to hold himself steady as the world around them seemed to tilt like they were back on those roller coasters. Surely he was misunderstanding, there was some small but key difference in what V felt and interpreted as ‘love’ than what it would mean for a human…?

Except he knew that wasn’t right. He could _feel_ the way V felt, and there really wasn’t any way to misinterpret that. Not with how open they were being with him. Not with how open they had always been with him.

Memories reeled through his mind, at first only his own, but then joined in with some of V’s as well, gentle reminders of what their days had entailed, what they had been building to all this time.

Sharing quiet mornings. Discovering new interests. Taking care of one another in way both small and large. Going out to new places, finding new hobbies.

Sleeping together, waking together, showering, exercising, cooking and eating together. Eddie going out of his way to make sure that V wasn’t ever bored, that they were given agency, finding ways for them to experience the things they wanted to experience. V, always there with him, keeping him company and keeping him healthy, never letting him feel as though he weren’t good enough, because he was V’s entire world…

And through it all, an unmistakable thread of affection winding between them. Unmistakable, but so understated that Eddie had somehow failed to see it for what it really was.

Until now.

He took a deep breath. It felt as though all of his insides were shaking. He wondered if all of that was him, or if some of it were coming from V as well. They certainly seemed to be affected, if the confused mix of emotions coming through the link were anything to go by.

V’s hand rubbed soothingly up Eddie’s back. Almost without thinking, Eddie moved in V’s lap, trying to come even closer together. They felt so far apart when they weren’t Together, and yet he just wanted to feel V pressed against him, now. Close, but still _themself_ so he could hold them.

_V…_

He shook again, just the purity and _amount_ of feeling coming to him from V enough to make him feel like he was drowning. Drowning, but still safe. Still protected.

_I’m not sure… that I could breathe without you anymore, either._

A small, gentle supernova when off within them. It was the rush of chocolate, the blooming of flowers, the emergence of a new life from the old. It was a quiet night of movies and raw cookie dough, and it was the beautiful terror of a roller coaster plummeting and spiraling in new directions. Dizzying euphoria, all wrapped up in a comfortable, _loving_ safety.

The kiss began almost without Eddie noticing it. The feelings which wrapped around them so tightly were enough to make him almost forget that he _had_ a body anymore, let alone that it existed in relation to anyone else, and that someone still held him in their arms. And now that someone had pulled him forward until they were sharing a kiss, slow and careful, surprisingly tentative as V figured out what it was they were meant to be doing, how to kiss without hurting Eddie on their teeth.

Eddie smiled into it, deepened it ever so slowly. He wasn’t afraid of V, or of their body. What was there to fear when he knew their every thought as though it were his own?

They pulled apart, and Eddie nudged his head against V’s. They returned it, until they were nuzzling together, their happiness melding together until they became They, even as They were still they in body.

**_YOU… ARE MY BREATH._ **

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it, folks!
> 
> For anyone wondering, the yoga position they got into is called 'yab yum,' and there _is_ a linked pic of the position in the fic if anyone wants to see without doing a search. I promise it's SFW. ♥
> 
> I don't know right this moment if I'll be returning to this setup or not. It was incredibly fun to write, I think I did the draft in about 5 days during a fever of writing in general. I'd like to come back to it just because it's relaxing as heck to write... and I'd like to maybe explore the idea of setting up that poly thing V was pushing for. XD At this very moment, though, I'm still recovering from back-to-back marathons and trying to get a few other things wrapped up.
> 
> Regardless, THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH. Thank you for reading, for the kudos, and for the kind words you've all shared with me. I'm so incredibly happy to have made you smile and to share this warm bit of fluff. 💕
> 
> \---
> 
> You can find me on  
> Tumblr: [@ehtarwrites](http://ehtarwrites.tumblr.com/)  
> Twitter: [@ehtarwrites](https://twitter.com/ehtarwrites)  
> Discord: @ehtarwrites#4962 
> 
> If anyone wants to come say hi or chat about nerdy things, hmu! ♥


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